The Walking Dead: Broken World
by CandleFire45
Summary: (The story is officially canceled guys. I'm really sorry. Please read the newest chapter to find out what's going on. I'm so sorry.)
1. Episode 1 - All I Wanted

**Hello! My name is CandleFire45 and welcome to my first SYOC story. As you can probably tell, I am quite new to writing stories, and it's quite hard for me, so If the writing is bad, please let me know. Anyway, welcome to my first SYOC story, The Walking Dead: Broken World. I have never done one before, but I am going to try, and I hope people will take interest. So, let's get started with the story, shall we?**

 **Emily Cardin – 17 Years Old**

I walked slowly through the old neighborhood, trying not to attract any corpses that may be walking around, but there was nothing expect me and my best friend Connor who was walking up ahead of me. He was holding a map in front of his face, which I didn't pay much attention to, instead, I opted to pick up a teddy bear that was lying on the road. It was brown and fluffy, and out of it's two button eyes, one was missing.

I tried not to think of who it used to belong to, even if I didn't know them. I tried to focus on my surroundings instead, which only reminded me of all the people who used to live in these homes. I must be crazy, what kind of girl cries over people she doesn't know? But all I could think about was what their lives were like before the virus happened, where were they now?

I put the teddy bear down and keep walking, but the street gave me more reminders to people's past life's. It was 1 year ago when it started, I don't remember much of the details, but all I know is that a virus or infection spread throughout the world in only a couple of days, then corpses started to walk around, biting people and ripping them apart, turning them into things as well.

I survived the first few days because I was smart, and I had Connor, I don't know what I would do without him. He was always there for me, and I was always there for him. I try to think of what would happen if this apocalypse stuff never started, would I have asked him to prom? Or would I just let us continue our friendship? Sometimes I feel a bit complicated by him, I didn't feel like I belonged to him, and there he is, holding out his map, with his golden blonde hair blowing with the wind.

I snapped back to reality, and I noticed that the sky was getting darker. I also saw Connor, who has stopped and was looking at the sky as well. I could see his glasses from my distance.

"It's getting dark, we should just camp in one of these houses" Connor says as he turns toward me.

I didn't know if that was a good Idea, I just wanted to keep moving. "Sure" I said to him, because I am a wuss "which house?"

Connor looked at the row of houses we have passed and finally settled on a green 2 story house.

"This one looks ok" He says smiling, I smile back at him.

Me and Connor walk past the house's lawn and up to it's door. I froze, worried that someone might be in there, but I guess if anyone was here, they would have shot at us by now. As Connor checked the door, a little breeze showed up, making my curly brown hair lift a little.

Connor finally gets the door open and walks right in. I stay outside a little while longer, taking in the scene as the sun sets. I loved seeing the sunset when I was a kid. Just the golden and orange colors coming together and watching as the sun lowers into the ground. I breathe in and step inside. Connor closes the door just as the sun vanishes into the night.

 **And that was it! I hoped you liked it! Now since this is a SYOC story, you can submit your own characters as well. However, I must warn you that I am bad at writing other characters, and if I mess them up, I am extremely sorry. Now onto the rules**

 **PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! PM me instead of writing it in a review, I fell like it spoils their character and I don't want that, anyone who writes their character in review will not be accepted**

 **Please keep it short and simple, I don't mind detail, but since I'm bad at making characters, I'd rather you state the obvious, rather then give me all this work I must write. But you can still detail it if you want.**

 **If you plan to make groups of character's then I don't mind, but please keep it to at least two people or maybe three. I don't want someone making a group of 6 and I must write them all. If you want a big group, then maybe make it in a backstory that they were in a big group, but they split or died or whatever.**

 **Don't make them super important. I will not allow people who were part of the government or were important celebs, I want normal people who are just trying to stay alive. I will however allow people who were part of the military or maybe were group leaders.**

 **I know I am a bad writer, so please give me tips or advice I could use, However I will not allow bullying or insulting people in reviews or at me. If anyone does that, I will either kill your character, or just not accept you.**

 **Keep in mind that this story takes place in the outskirts of Georgia and are characters will move North from here.**

 **Have fun filling out the form, I want people to enjoy making characters, so please feel free to have fun with it.**

 **Here is the form**

 **Basic**

Name/Names: (Your character's name, if you have two or three more, please include them as well **)**

Ages: (Your Character's age, and include your other characters ages as well if you decide to make them, can be anyway from 6 to 60)

Birthday: (Their birth date)

Height: (Their Height)

Weight: (Their Height)

Sexuality: (Are they Gay, Straight, Anything else?)

 **Appearance**

Physical Appearance: (What does their body look like?)

Regular Appearance: (What do they wear most of the time? Please keep it realistic)

Winter Appearance: (When it get's cold, what do they wear?)

Voice: (What they sound like? **Optional** )

 **Personality**

Outdoor Personality: (How do they act around other people?)

Indoor Personality: (How do they act when no one is around?)

Likes: (What do they like?)

Dislikes: {What do they hate?)

Quirks/Habits:

Fears: (What are they afraid of?)

 **Personal**

Backstory: (This is probably one of the only parts that should be fully detailed, what was their life like before, how has the apocalypse changed them, who did they meet along the way, were they in a group? Please include everything you possibly can)

Talents: (What are they good at, they can be good at many things or one thing, I'll only allow three talents)

Strategy for Survival: (How do they survive? Do they go solo or do they stick with large crowds? Are they the one in charge or do they like to stick back and let the others talk? Do they betray others often or do they try and help? This should also be really detailed with how they operate in the apocalypse)

How do they feel about Emily and Connor: (Your character's will eventually meet my characters in the story. How do they feel about them when they first meet? Do they stick together? Or will they drift apart? Do they trust them? Please put detailed stuff here as well)

Weapons they most often use: (Everyone has a weapon they prefer, are they good with snipers or shotguns, do they use swords or knifes? Are they unique and try to combine them? Choose any weapon you want)

Relationship with other group members: (If you make more then one character, how do they feel about the other one their stuck with, do they loathe them, like them, do they have a personal history with them? Be detailed)

Preferred death: (Sadly, I will plan to kill some character's in this story, so how do you want them to die if I decided they must?)

 **And there we go, I hope this form is good enough for a lot of you. Please review to give me tips and advice for upcoming stories! I will try and update around every Sunday, although keep in mind that I have school and I have personal family stuff to do to, so we must wait and see.**

 **Take Care**

 **CandleFire45**


	2. Episode 1 - Part 1 - The First Encounter

**Welcome to the next chapter! I am feeling motivated right now and want to write, so I am doing it right now. I hope you enjoy, please start sending me characters, the faster I get them, the quicker I can start on this. Ok, enjoy.**

 **Connor Graf – 18 Years Old**

After closing the door and making sure it was locked, I reached into my bag and took out my flash light, since the electricity didn't work here, and it was dark.

"Are you sure no one might be here?" Emily whispered to me as I turned on my flash light.

"Positive" I say, which I was really lying to myself. To be honest, I wasn't sure if it was the best idea to stop at some random house to rest, but it looked empty, and that alone gave me enough confidence to walk down the hallway.

The walls were painted green and the floor was wooden. There was a drawer with a bowl and a family photo on it, right next to the drawer was an archway that led into the living room. There also was an archway at the end of the hall, that led to an office. Right next to Emily, near the front door, was a staircase that led to the second floor.

"Listen, the house is a bit bigger than I thought" I said to Emily "I'll go check the second floor and you check the first floor, ok?" It probably was a bad idea to split up, but we could cover more ground that way, and even though I liked Emily, I wanted some alone time.

Emily nodded and headed into the living room to search for anything lurking around. I turned toward the stairs and started to climb up them, one by one. Each step I took made a creaking noise as I ascended the stairs, it would be hard to sneak up on anyone sleeping up there. But I didn't hear a peep on the second floor.

I reach the top of the stairs and looked around the hallway again. Across from me and the stairs, was a wooden door that was slightly open to show a bathroom. I looked down the hallway to my right, and it showed one wooden door and a window at the end of the hall. On my left there was 2 doors and another window at the end of the hall.

I went into the bathroom first, and found it sparkling clean, it looked dirty, but not like dead bodies were present here before. None of the cabinets had medicine, just some soap and toothpaste, which I took anyway. I didn't bother to turn on or check the sink or tub, since there hasn't been any running water since last year before the apocalypse began.

I walked down the hall with the two doors, careful to not make any noise, and opened the first one. It was a boy's bedroom, complete with bunk beds, a T.V, a desk with pencils and paper on it, and toys. I looked in the closet, where there were tons of boy's clothes. None of them fit me, but I took them because why the hell not.

I left the boy's room and went into the second room near the end of the hall. I opened the door to find a nursery. It was very pink and there were tons of toys and crayons and pictures on the wall. I didn't say a word, but tears were welling up in my eyes, so I took one last look at the nursery and closed the door quietly.

Seeing that room made me remember Jason, my soon to be little brother before he died. I remember I was 8 when I was receiving the news when my mom told me I was going to have a new baby brother, I was ecstatic. I helped my uncle and aunt prepare the decorations for when my baby brother got home. I remember sitting on the chair, squishing my face in the window to see the car pull up. I waited for hours. Then when they got back, my mom rushed right into her room and I could hear her sobbing. My dad was the one that told me that my little brother died in mommy's stomach.

I guess it didn't matter much now, I mean, who cares about someone's dead brother when every day you are running from zombies and bandits. I didn't want to think of Jason, hanging out with Emily helped me forget about him, but every so often I wonder what would have happened if he didn't die. Jason would have been born in 2008, so he would have been nine when the apocalypse happened in 2017. Would I have been able to keep him alive? I don't know.

I remembered that I was supposed to be checking the rooms, so I got my act together and walked to the hallway with one door. '

It was the parents' bedroom. They had a big brown bed with a sprawled-out blanket, as they were rushing, all the drawers were empty, and I noticed blood stains on their carpet. I went to the closet and was shocked to not find clothes, but three secret compartments. Two of them had nothing but a few crumbs of something, but the third, I felt my hand touch something familiar.

It was a pistol, a Glock 19 to be exact. There was a full round of bullets in the gun. I couldn't believe my luck, I have held a gun before, but that was during the first few weeks of the apocalypse. I lost it when me and Emily were running from a horde of zombies. I took few minutes holding it out in front of me, trying t fine which position worked out best. I couldn't help but feel cool holding it, so, like an idiot, I stood in front of the mirror on one of the walls, doing different poses with the gun.

"You look ridiculous" A voice said behind me.

I turned around to find Emily leaning on the stair well, smirking. Her eyes, which were light blue, were shining even though it was dark.

"Well I may be ugly, but I am a good shot" I say smiling at her.

"Oh really, then maybe I'll take some lessons from the great o Connor" She says bowing to me.

I smirk, and I could tell she is to. Me and Emily have known each other a long time, it was quite hard to forget how we met. It was during school, and I was walking down the stairs when I tripped. I didn't get hurt, but my glasses broke, and I am technically blind without them. So, I was stumbling around the hall while kids laughed at me. Emily was the only person who came out of the crowd and helped me to the nurse's office. We've been together ever since.

"Anyway, I checked the first floor, nothing really there" Emily said.

"Nothing on the second floor either except this gun" I say holding it out for her to see.

"Why do you always get the good toys?' Emily says, pretending to sulk.

I couldn't help but smile again "Because I know how to shoot. Besides, you got that trusty Combat Knife to use" I say.

Emily holds it out for me to see again. We got it off a dead survivor who was stuck to a pole. It looked like it was suited for Emily, who has used knifes to help her mom cook and cut stuff.

"I guess your right" She says. "Wouldn't want to accidently cut myself while we walk or anything"

"Oh, please Emily, I could accidently shoot myself with this" I say.

She starts to say something when suddenly I hear a moan. Me and Emily freeze in our tracks, it is coming from under us.

"Oh yeah" She says a bit quieter this time "I forgot to tell you I found a door that leads to a basement"

I give her a worried look, we must check under there, who knows what their might be, and after hearing that groan, I already fear what I might fine. The door leading to the basement is in the living room. I slowly open it and can see the wooden steps leading down into the darkness. I can already hear the moaning.

"Stay right behind me" I say to Emily. She nods slowly.

I creep down the stairs. Just like the stair case that leads to the second floor, this one creaks as well, but louder. Emily is right behind me as we descend, and even though I am in front of her, I hear her gasp. Then I see it.

The basement has a single couch with a radio on a wooden stool. There are plates everywhere and I can see a mini fridge and a generator. But it's the blood that makes me stop. I start gagging, I can already smell the corpses. Their all on the couch, except a man who is crawling towards us. Emily stabs the zombie in the head and it goes still.

On the couch sits a woman, a teenage and little boy, and a baby, all with bullet holes in their head. The man must have killed them, but why? I can see the gun on the flor near the couch, no bullets in it though. None of them had bite marks, and the man who turned zombie was a bullet hole in his chest. Did someone raid the house?

Emily is frozen in the corner of the room, all the cheerfulness we had at the second floor is gone. I try to stay calm and order Emily to set up our sleeping bags in the living room, but I can't even move.

"I'm going to set up our sleeping bags" Emily says quietly, she practically runs up the stairs. I stay down though, because maybe there is something in this room. I check the generator, but it's dead. There is no food in the mini fridge and the gun has no bullets, so I can't take that. The radio has no batteries, but seems t be in working order, so I take that.

Then I noticed a journal on the teenage boy's lap. I pick it up and it read " _Lucas's Journal"._ This must have belonged to him. I look up at the boy, his face motionless as he stares up into the air. I silently nod and run up the stairs and try to forget the encounter ever happened.

 **I hope you liked this chapter, I was having a bit of trouble with this one, so sorry if it's all over the place. Anyway, I wanted to say, that tomorrow will be Sunday and I will try and post a chapter then, but it might take a little while because, well, I've never done this before. For all of those who send characters, just know that your OC will be in tomorrow's chapter. Ok, that is all.**

 **Take Care**

 **CandleFire45**


	3. Episode 1 - Part 2 - The Other Ones

**YAY! First, I want to take my time to the people who have read the story and left a review, sure it's only three reviews, but I am still happy people sat down and read my story. Second, I'd liked to thank the first two submitters** **ShABIA2000 and Undying Rage984. I will do my best to make your characters cool and good. And finally, third, I have decided to put up a deadline for when I will allow OC's. Technically it's not really a deadline, because even after the deadline has passed, I will still allow people to submit characters, the catch is, people who submit before the deadline will be featured first, and I might allow them to live a bit longer. But whatever, if you're curious, the deadline will be in March 20** **th** **, so please start submitting more! Now let's get on with the story!**

 **Emily Cardin – 17 Years Old**

It's hard falling asleep after what me and Connor witnessed in the basement below. The groans and moans echo in my dreams all night. I still don't get what my problem is, why do I care about people I don't know? Maybe it's because I wish they had a better ending then the one they got, who wants to die from a gun instead of old age?

I still have my eyes closed when the first sliver of sunlight sneaks through the curtains. I start to open them, and I see Connor, sleeping with his jacket and pants still on, I see a notebook by his side, but don't pay to much attention to it. I climb out of my sleeping bag and look through the window.

It looks like no corpses are walking around, and everything looks the same when we arrived here yesterday. The sun is barley peeking over the city skyline in the distance. I don't remember the cities name, but I don't really care at this point, it seems as if I can't remember a lot of things.

I back away and start to pack up my stuff. I grab my red flannel jacket and put it on, I grab my short black lace up boots and put them on as well. Connor is stirring up and I could see him moving around his sleeping bag.

I then think of a trick I read in book once, the hunger games I think, where a girl named Katniss put her head over a boy named Peeta while he was sleeping. It struck me as funny and I wanted to try it out on Connor. I position myself on the right side of Connor and I lean over his face until my nose is barley touching his.

"Connor. Connor, wake up" I say giggling a bit.

Connor flutters his eyelids open and sees me.

"HOLY SH- "He yells almost hitting me.

I roll back on the floor dying of laughter, even in the apocalypse, I can have fun, right?

"Oh, my god, Emily, why am I friends with you?" Connor says looking at me.

I smirk "Let's see, umm, because I am the best girl in the world, and I helped you to the nurse's office when you fell, an- "

"Alright, Alright I get it" He says smiling at me.

Me and Connor make eye contact and for a second, I feel an urging desire to just kiss him right now. But I hold back, still giggling and hug him. He hugs me smiling and pushes me away in a joking matter.

"Come on doll face, we have to go" He says standing up.

I nod, still smiling and start to collect my gear. I grab my combat knife and put it in me hard plastic sheathe. I pick up my light brown backpack that only has one strap on it because the other one broke off, and it looks cooler. I get everything together and I stand in front of the mirror in the hallway to look at myself.

My brown curly hair goes down along my face and ends at my shoulders. I blink my light blue almond eyes and move my thin lips. My skin is pale, but I am dirty after my travels in the apocalypse. I am thin, and I have a bit average of a height, around 5'4". I look at myself in the mirror, is this really me? I take my back pack and dig around in it until I fine what I am looking for, a photo when I was 15, 2 years ago before the apocalypse happened. It's dated June 28th, 2015. That was my birthday. I stand at the table, looking happy, staring at the cake. My mom is on my left, her flowing brown touching the back of my head. She is smiling at me, and there is my dad, him laughing his ass off about something I don't remember.

We all look so happy, so excited, is this really what are family once was? I can only imagine what other people's experience with their families were, what happened to them?

I put the photo away and me and Connor pack up and head out the door again.

I can instantly feel the spring air all around me, the dead trees now have light green leaves growing, and the sky is blue. "What day is it?" I ask Connor as he takes out his map.

"March 18thth, 2018" He says.

Has it only been a year since all of this began?

Me and Connor finally continue our journey to who knows where. Honestly, I don't know where were going. Me and Connor are just travelers trying to see what there is left of the world, we discussed the possibility of making a group, but real people are just as dangerous as those things roaming the streets, so we mostly keep to ourselves.

An hour later, we finally leave the neighborhood we've been walking through, and we enter the woods that have been looming at the end of the road. I look at the map Connor has, with the markers he has drawn on it, I think were at the border of Georgia and South Carolina.

After three hours of walking, I ask for a break at near a huge tree. Connor agrees, and we lay down awhile, taking in the scenery. It's very peaceful, with all the green leaves in the trees.

Connor takes out the notebook I saw early and starts to read it, while I watch a red headed woodpecker fly around. I can almost forget the world has ended. I can just pretend me, and Connor are talking about homework or prom.

I allow myself to take it all in, and then I hear something. It sounds like something hard hitting into something's head. I don't pay much attention to it, and try to watch the wood pecker, but then I hear footsteps.

This was no corpse walking around, the steps were to…even, and sounded heavy.

I am about to say something to Connor when something grabs me.

I scream, and I can smell it already, it's a zombie. I try to reach for my combat knife that is in its sheathe attached my leg, but I can't reach it. I struggle as its teeth barley contact my neck. "CONNOR!" I scream, but he is already on his feet, pulling out his gun he found in the house, and is about to take the shot when something hit the zombie in the head. I hear a something crack, and then I feel the grip of the walker lessen. I fall to the ground, and see the zombie fall dead.

"Thanks" I say to Connor.

He looks confused "I didn't shoot it"

Then I hear a deep voice behind me "Who are you two?"

I scramble up to get a look at the man in front of us. The man has dark brown hair that stays just above his shoulders. It's beginning to thin, and his hairline is beginning to recede. He has a short goatee for facial hair and has a small potbelly, that seems to have begun growing out, but has a bit of muscle underneath it, showing while he is a bit chubby, he is not weak. His hair is combed back, and his eyes have bags underneath, with wrinkles beginning to curve around their shape. His eyes are blue, his skin is very pale, and a good amount of hair covers his arms and legs. He wears a business suit and a blue dress shirt with a white t-shirt underneath. He also has black dress pants, and black dress shoes He is holding an axe handle, that is covered in blood, the expression on his face looks serious, and I can tell from one look of him that he does not mess around.

He speaks again, this time a little louder. "I'll say it again. Who. Are. You."

I don't say a word, and Connor stays silent to. The man eyes us suspiciously, and I can tell he is about to leave us.

"My name is Emily" I say without even looking at Connor, who I can tell is staring at me.

I look at Connor, who eyes the man as well, I can tell he doesn't trust him, but he speaks up to. "And my name is Connor"

The man's grip on the axe handle lessen a bit, he seems to trust us, I hope.

"So, what's your name…" I say.

He doesn't tell us right away, and it seems like he doesn't trust us, I guess I would to if I met two teens in the woods.

"The name's Shane MacCormac, nice to meet you" He says.

Connor and Shane keep looking at each other, I can tell that Connor doesn't trust him still, but honestly, I am just glad I am still breathing not dead.

"Thank you" I say to Shane.

"For what" He says.

"Well, you just saved my life, so thank you" I say, kind of smiling.

"It's nothing, it was just the right thing to do" He says nodding. "I've seen too much death around here, and seeing a girl die in front of me isn't very pleasant"

His eyes seem weary, as if he was remembering something.

"Anyway, what are you two doing around here?' He says.

"Nothing much really, we were just passing by the woods when a zombie grabbed my friend." Connor says. "Again, thank you so much for helping her"

Shane doesn't say anything to that, and we just stand in awkward silence.

"So, what are you doing out here?" I ask him.

Shane looks at me and I feel like a child compared to him for some reason, I don't know why.

"Just wandering like you guys" He says.

"Really?" Connor says, looking at him.

"Well that's pretty much all we're doing" Shane says.

"So, your alone?"

Shane says nothing again, but I can tell that means yes.

How alone he must feel, I never thought of what it would be like to survive alone, with no one to turn to for aid or help.

Then I get an idea "Hey Shane, do you want to join our group?"

Shane eyes lock on me, and Connor's is as well, but not as friendly like he was 2 minutes ago.

Shane hesitates, still eyeing Connor and me, but eventually says, "Sure, you two almost died today, seems as if you need some protection" Shane says crossing his arms.

"Woah, woah, woah. Wait, Emily, can we talk?" Connor says.

"Sure" I say looking at him.

Connor leads me away from Shane and takes me near another tree.

"Emily, what are you saying, everything has been fine with just the two of us for a year, and suddenly your inviting some guy into our group with no idea who he is!" Connor whispers.

"Well it would be hard not to help someone who just saved your life!" I whisper back "Besides, he looks friendly."

"LOOKS, he LOOKS friendly Emily, what if he isn't? what if he is insane and is just hiding his true colors?" Connor says.

"Connor, we haven't crossed paths with another survivor for months! And all we did was nod hello and keep walking, do we really want to go it alone the whole way?" I say to him.

"Well we have been going alone for a year and he have handled ourselves perfectly fine!" Connor yells.

I look at Shane, who is leaning against the big tree we were at earlier. I don't know why, but I want to know more about him, and what happened to him, and no matter what Connor says, I want him in our crew.

"Connor, if you don't want to team up with him, then fine, we can do just that, but it's your fault if I die when you are clumsily holding the gun in front of me when a zombie was about to chew my brains, this might be good for us" I say to him.

Connor eyes Shane and then me "I just don't trust him"

"Then let him come! Then you will be able to trust him!" I say.

Connor eyes me and then Shane, I can tell he is thinking about it, at least a little bit. The truth is, I know Connor sometimes wants to be alone, and it's much easier to do that with your best friend. But with two people, is not so easy, but I can tell he is considering it.

After a long hot minute, Connor sighs.

"Fine, BUT THAT'S IT, no more letting people into our group, ok?" Connor says.

I nod, smiling.

Me and Connor walk back to Shane who is looking at the trees. When he hears us approaching he turns to us?

"So?" he says

"You're allowed to come with us, however your allowed to leave anytime and if you try and kill us, I'll kill you first" Connor says

"Sure, whatever" Shane says.

After that Connor says to pack up, I pick up my pack and watch Shane get his he left behind when he came to save me. Connor's eyes follow Shane, but he still packs up his stuff.

After 30 seconds, Shane comes out and we all leave the area. I don't know if it was right to allow Shane in or not, but all I cared about now was leaving these woods behind.

We finally entered a clearing, there is a highway in front of us along with a city in the distance, the highway is packed with cars and dead bodies. We all stare at the highway leading into the city, until finally Connor says, "Lets get a move on" as he shifts his backpack and walks forward.

Shane follows behind him, but I once again, I stand alone for a bit, taking in the scenery. I hoped a lot of things in that moment. I hoped Connor would be able to stay friends with me when this was all over, I hoped the city was empty, I hoped Shane was a good guy. I didn't know what I hoped most of all though.

With small steps, I followed Connor and Shane, and started to walk to the city.

 **Yes! This chapter was quite longer then I expected, I hope you all enjoyed. Thank you to** **ShABIA2000 for** **Shane MacCormac, I really loved his character and have great ideas for him, I hope you like him in my writing and again, apologies if I mess something up, this is my first time doing this after all. We should see are next few survivors in the next chapter. People who submit now will see them sooner rather then later so please hurry with submissions! I came up with an idea to hint at another chapter twist so from now on, at the end of each chapter, there will be a little hint/Quote from next chapter I will put so you can guess what might happen next chapter.**

 **The hint is "BLOCK THE DOORS AND BLOCK THE WINDOWS NOW!" She screams.**

 **I wonder what it might mean? Who could be saying that?**

 **As for when I'll post the chapter, I have a lot of motivation to write so expect one very soon.**

 **Oh, and some people have been asking me about this stories…story. So here are some facts in this world that might help with your character.**

 **In this universe, the outbreak/apocalypse began in January 19** **th** **, 2017**

 **The cities New York, Chicago, Las Vegas, and Miami were the first cities to be quarantined and destroyed. They are populated by many zombie**

 **The military has retreated to California and is currently hiding somewhere in the state**

 **The most devastated country in this universe was Japan, during the time of the outbreak, a huge earthquake shook the country and a tsunami got rid of pretty much everything. There are now mutated zombies because of the amount of power plants destroyed.**

 **Sorry if this messed up some characters, but these are the facts and their hear to stay.**

 **Take Care**

 **CandleFire45**


	4. Episode 1 - Part 3 - Defenseless

**Hello again! I swear I feel so motivated, so I am updating quicker than I thought. I promise after this I might take my time with the chapters. Also, thank you to everyone who has submitted so far, I love every single character that is given to me, so please keep submitting! Anyway, I hope you all like this chapter, so Enjoy!**

 **Connor Graf – 18 Years Old**

No other zombies have appeared since we have arrived, even as we walk along the highway, I only see dead bodies with bullet holes in their heads. I walk and squeeze my way through tightly packed cars that refuse to move or budge.

I look back after jumping onto a broken station wagon. Shane is climbing over tipped over cars, while he tightly holds his axe handle, I never asked him why he uses a handle for an axe instead of… an axe. But I'm sure he has his reasons.

Emily is further back, inspecting a red minivan. I checked it earlier, nothing useful. She seems to be occupied with holding us back instead of going forward.

"Emily come on!" I yell.

I think I startled her as she jumps and looks in my direction. She starts to walk quicker but is having trouble hopping over the cars. Both sides of the highway are filled with cars, and their blocking many of the exits into the city. I didn't know this cities name, my map didn't say anything about it, so I was caught off guard when I saw it after we emerged through the woods.

It didn't matter though, we had to get through this city. I looked back, and Emily has finally caught up with Shane and me. She looked tired, even though we had a full night's rest the day before.

"Weren't you in track at school?" I ask her.

"There we only had to jump hurdles, here we have to squeeze through the cars." She says not even looking at me.

Shane just continues ahead of us, not even bothering to pay us any attention. "Huh? Wh- hey! Shane! Wait up!" I say running after him.

He is standing on a tipped over SUV and is pointing at one of the roads on the highway. "Look" He says. I still can't get over his deep voice.

I look where he is pointing and see an exit ramp that leads down into the center of the city. I knew this was a bad idea, we should have stayed far away from cities, but here we are stuck in one.

"We could go their and stock up" Emily says, shrugging.

"Yay we could do that and get eaten alive in the process." I say to her.

Emily gives me an annoyed look which actually hurt me "It's just a joke" I say quickly "But still, cities are not a save place to be, let's just continue along this highway and-'" but I didn't get to finish my sentence.

"You got a better idea?" Shane says looking at me "Because as you can see the highway network isn't exactly a safe place either!" he says pointing past the exit. Further away I can see zombies all around the highway. They are shuffling around cars and tripping over cars. There would be no way in hell we could make it past that.

"All we need to do is go into the city and past the highway mess and come out on the other side" Shane says looking at the exit ramp again. "I know the city is a crappy place for a zombie apocalypses, but with the way the highway is, there is no way we can go back and find another route"

Emily was nodding along with him and I knew I was about to get outvoted. I grunted with frustration because I knew Shane was right, there was no way we can use this highway.

"Ok, fine, lets go into the city" I say sighing.

Shane and Emily walk down the exit while I linger a few steps back, careful not to alert any zombies around. But when we exit the exit ramp, the roads are empty, not a zombie or human in sight. I look around at all the glistening buildings and roads, surely their most be one horde of zombies here, right?

Emily is the one in front of us all, and she practically runs around the place. Shane acts with a little more caution, even though he was the one who came up with the idea. I just look around with my pistol in hand, observing every ally and corner we pass.

After walking for awhile we make it to what looks like the central area of the city. There is a massive park in the middle of all these buildings and a huge statue, which right now is on the ground and Is cracked. The park is surrounded by shops and buildings, and lots of cars.

Emily just entered a grocery store called ALDI's and is going around checking what she can scavenge. Shane looks around the square, making sure there are no zombies what so ever. Every time he does fine one, he hits their head with his axe handle.

I just stand in the park and wait for Shane to finish up zombie hunting. Then he comes over and sits down, wiping the blood off with a random newspaper. Emily takes a bit longer but comes running out of the store carrying bags, looking excited.

"Look what I got!" she says and fishes an Oreo box out of the bag. "There wasn't much in there but there was just this big Oreo box free for the taking!" she then proceeds to open the box and pop one into her mouth.

"Want some?" she says chewing. I look at the box, and my mouth starts to water, when was the last time I ate an Oreo cookie, or any sweets at all really. I practically lunge at the box to get one. I have three black cookies in my hand and start to throw them in my mouth. Emily is laughing while I do this.

Emily goes over the Shane and offers him some Oreo's as well, he's hesitant at first by he grabs a few and starts to bite into them, savoring the taste. I on the other hand, have already eaten mine, and I was craving for more.

Me, Emily and Shane all sit on the park bench just taking in the view, and me devouring half of the box Oreo's. I am chewing on one of them when I see a dark masked figure in the distance. I nudge Emily and point at the individual. It looks like another survivor and there moving fast, way to fast, like their sprinting.

"Hey!" I call out. Shane and Emily notice the person now and Shane gets up with his weapon.

"We should just ignore them" Shane says.

But there is something wrong with their movement, because even thought their sprinting, there also slowing down looking back, urging something to follow them. Then I hear a car alarm and I see a horde of zombies, somehow appearing out of thin air. All of us get up and are about to leave when I here Emily scream.

I spin around to see a zombie lunge at her, mouth wide open. Shane is the one who brings his axe handle down on its head, blood flying. I hold onto Emily as she shakes. "We need to get out of here now!" I yell. Shane is nodding in agreement when I hear another girl scream.

It's sounds like a little girl, like a child. Shane freezes and I see him look at the direction of where the horde is. The black figure now has three people by their side, but from this distance I can't tell what they look like.

"Hold on" Shane says, and he takes off toward the group.

"WAIT SHANE!" I scream, running with Emily behind me. I stumble towards Shane, jumping over a hedge to catch up. We make it to the road where there are tons, perhaps thousands of zombies, too many to count, shuffling down the street. Then I see them, the other people. The person wearing a black hooded jacket is a girl who holds out a machete and is hacking away at the monsters who come to close, the next is a teenage boy, who wears a black leather jacket who has a survival knife out and has a katana on his back. I see an old black man holding back a hysterical pale woman who is screaming about something. Then I see a little girl, who is being dragged by a heavy-set walker toward the horde.

The girl is screaming and before I can even get a word out, Shane is running at the zombie smashing his axe handle into it's head. The zombie won't let go, so Shane keeps hitting it in the head repeatedly. The zombie finally lets the girl go and it dies. The girl run towards the hysterical women and starts to cry.

"EVERYONE GET BACK! GET THE FUCK BACK!" The hooded girl yells, backing up when a zombie jumps out at her. Everyone starts to move back as he horde gets closer. I don't know what's going on? But I take out my gun and start to shoot at the zombies in the crowd, wasting my ammo, but I don't really care. Were all backing up when I see a zombie lunge at Shane.

I take aim and fire before the zombie sinks it teeth into his flesh. The zombie drops dead in front of Shane, but he barely pays attention, focusing more on keeping the zombie's back.

"REBECCA WHAT'S THE FUCKING PLAN!" The boy shouts who is slashing with his knife at the things.

"GIVE ME A MINUTE!" she says looking around. I don't pay attention, instead I look at the horde and shooting into it.

"HEY BIG GUY, GIVE ME A BOOST!" she yells at Shane. Shane hits one more zombie and runs over to help the girl up. I hear something rustle and then slide down.

"COME ON PEOPLE! CLIMB!" she screams.

I turn around a notice the fire escape latter is down, first the little girl goes up, then the women. The girl, Rebecca, helps Emily up the latter next. Me, Shane, and the teenage kid are the last few who are still at the ground.

"NICK GET YOUR ASS UP HERE!" the girl yells. The boy, Nick, stabs a zombie in the head with his knife and starts to climb the latter. Me and Shane are the last ones around.

"SHANE GET UP THE LATTER!" I yell, when a zombie lunges at him again. Shane hits it in the head. He nods and starts to scale the latter while I'm the only one down here. I reload as quickly as I dare and shoot at a zombie who gets a little to close for my comfort.

"CONNOR!" Emily screams.

I hear Emily, but don't take my focus off the zombies until I can feel the latter. I quickly climb up while the zombies moan and groan behind me. When I reach the top, I watch the old black guy, who wears a black tuxedo, take out a toolbox and selects a screwdriver. He starts to unscrew the screws keeping the latter in place.

"FREDRICK HURRY THE FUCK UP!" Rebecca screams.

"I am going as fast as I can Ms. Lyons" Fredrick says calmly. He finally gets the last screw off, and the latter lands with a thud, tumbling some zombies over.

"Oh, thank god" the young women said hugging the little girl tightly.

"Were not out of this yet" Rebecca says. "Hey, you" She says pointing at Shane "Mind breaking this window for me?" she asks pointing at the window next to the fire escape

Shane stares at her, he doesn't do it, but gives me the handle to decide for myself. I swing the axe handle back and use my force to punch it through the window. The glass shatters and Rebecca climbs in. I hand it back to Shane and climb in the window.

Were in an apartment, it's a mess. The couch is turned over, and there are broken pieces of glass everywhere. The T.V lays on the floor, with the drawers opened and all of it's contents spilled everywhere. There is a hallway that leads to a bedroom, which is also a mess, and a bathroom, which looks like hell.

The women and little girl sit down on the soft carpet and the girl leans into her mother's arms. Nick sits on one of the stools in the kitchen, and I catch Emily looking at him. The black hooded girl is looking out the window and is looking at the other group members. Fredrick, is leaning right next to the mother and daughter.

I look around this little group that were stuck with because of that unexpected horde. All of them look like nice people, but I can't help but feel awkward about this, only one day ago me and Emily were on are own, now were stuck with six new people in a tiny apartment. I felt cramped, this was weird.

I heard a bang at the door of the apartment and I heard a moan from behind me, a zombie was climbing onto the fire escape balcony and zombies were bursting through the door. "BLOCK THE DOORS AND BLOCK THE WINDOWS NOW!" Rebecca screams. Shane and Nick run to the bedroom together while the old guy holds the door closed. Rebecca goes to the fridge, which is unplugged and unhooked, and pushes it in front of the window. Shane and Nick are grunting, pushing a closet to the door. I help, and together we block the door. The zombies bang on it, but they can't get in, after a few minutes they lose interest and leave.

I start to relax when the hooded girl goes up to me and Emily. "Who the fuck are you?!" she yells in my face, which I gently push away. "My name is Connor, and this is Emily" I say pointing to Emily. She gives a little wave and then puts her head down. "Whatever, I don't care about that, what I care about is why this guy and you kids ran up and helped us!" she says, pointing at Shane and that at me and Emily.

"Isn't it obvious?" Nick says leaning on the wall "They saw we were in trouble and came to help, like any normal person would."

"These are not normal circumstances Nick!" She says through gritted teeth "People are only focused on themselves, there is no way these people didn't help us because they were being kind, they must want something" she says glaring at me.

"Hey!" Emily shouts "Leave me friend alone! We saw you guys and Shane ran over, and we weren't going to leave him to the horde"

The girl turns toward Shane "Then why did you run over, huh?" Shane looks a bit angry, and I think he might consider punching her if the women didn't step up.

"This kind man, saw that my daughter was in trouble" She says through tears "And he came over to save her! Which is more than anything any of you have done for my girl!"

The girl is crying, hiding her face in her mother's shirt, but she peeks out to look at Shane, who is looking at her as well. Rebecca looks pissed, but I can see she is calming down, considering that possibility. She doesn't say anything, but Nick chimes in "Thanks… what's your name?" he ask.

"It's Shane MacCormac" he says looking away.

"Well Shane, saving a child's life isn't something people forget, we should all thank you for saving Alice's life" Nick says smirking "Right guys?"

"Thank you for protecting my girl" The women says, still crying. Shane looked a little embarrassed, I could tell he wasn't used to so much praise. "It's nothing, just the right thing to do" he says.

After that the whole group goes silent, Rebecca checks on everyone except me and Emily, which I guess means were not so trust worthy yet. Me and Emily just sit there on the floor as the sun goes down through the cracks of the window. Were leaning our backs on a counter, watching as Nick and Fredrick fall asleep in the sleeping bags we offered them.

"Today was pretty crazy" Emily says looking at the window.

"Yeah" is all I can reply with.

"Do you think we should go?" Emily says under her breath. I consider it but dismiss the idea. "Nah, there's no way to leave remember?"

"Oh yeah. The horde" Emily says.

Me and Emily sit down and watch the last sliver of sunlight leave the room. I know can see why she likes the sunset, the fridge blocks off most of it, but I can see the orange and gold light mixing together to create a new kind of color I've never seen before.

"Do you miss how things used to be?" Emily ask me.

"Absolutely" I say, I wish everything was the way it was before.

"What do you miss most?" She says, clearly tired after a long day.

That's a hard one, theirs a lot of things I miss, my new car, my mom and dad, my home, working up courage to ask Emily to prom. Millions, possibly billions of things run through my head before I decide on the best possible one.

"Clean clothes" I say.

Emily laughs, and I feel warm inside, all fuzzy and happy. Her laugh makes me forget about the apocalypse, about the world ending, I can truly see hope for us.

"You haven't grown up, haven't you?" she says smiling.

"And you haven't killed me yet, haven't you" I say. I almost say "kissed" but I change the words.

"Oh, you better believe you won't make it out of here alive" she says.

"Than I better be paying extra attention" I say smirking. I look into her eyes, and she stares into mine, and I feel the desire to kiss her, I can feel my brain screaming " _JUST DO IT ALREADY"._

"Ms. Emily and Mr. Connor" Fredrick says, instantly breaking the mood "I have come to return your sleeping bags."

I look up and he has Emily's pink sleeping bag folded on his arm. "We gave it to you; don't you want it?" Emily says.

"Oh, that won't be necessary Ms. Emily, I am in fact quite comfortable lying on the carpet"

Me and Emily look at each other and start to smirk, is this guy like a butler?

"Thank you" Emily says taking the sleeping bag.

Fredrick nods and returns to the living room, where he starts to position himself to sleep on the carpet.

I eye Emily "Is he a butler?" Emily starts to die laughing "No, I am serious" and that makes her laugh harder.

For once in my life, I feel ok, I feel totally fine, and as Emily's laugh's fill the air, I think everything will be ok.

 **I am in love with this chapter! Here are the new survivors. Everyone beside Shane and Nick are made by me, so I hope you enjoy them and I am curious on how much you like them? Please review so I know! Here is the next hint for the next chapter.**

 **Hint: "I never asked for this" He whispers**

 **Ooooooohhhhhhh so much mystery! Anyway, until I figure out how to make a poll, here is my question to you guys. Beside Emily and Connor, who is your favorite survivor? Rank them from worst to best!**

 **Take Care**

 **CandleFire45**


	5. Episode 1 - Part 4 - At Your Service

**So, after re-reading most of my story, I noticed one of two things, that I write way to fast and miss words sometimes, and that I am updating quicker than I expected. So, I will just update when I feel like it, which is every day. Keep in mind, I still do go to school, so it might be hard for me to write as much as I like to, but you should be excited during the weekends. Anyway, I also have to sadly inform that I have gotten A LOT of characters, and that's not the bad part, I love every single character that's given to me, but because of where the story is heading, and I kind of want to slow things down from here, It might take me awhile to introduce them into where I see fit. Right now, the characters you should expect to see in episode 1 is Shane, Nick, and another survivor I am not revealing yet. So please be patient because I might introduce lots more people in episode 2, or maybe episode 1 if I can find a place for them. I hope this helped you out somehow and let's get on with the chapter!**

 **Emily Cardin – 17 Years Old**

Dreams are very weird to me, when you sleep it's so clear in your mind, but when you wake up, you forget all about it if you try to remember. That's what happened to me when I was dreaming about me and Connor walking around the city, there was no one there, and then I saw Connor disappear as well. Soon I was alone in the dream, and I don't think I have panicked so much in my life, in the dream practically ran through the streets looking for Connor, but there was nothing. Then I saw his glasses, covered in blood, and I as I picked them up, I saw Connor's face, only it was all bloody now and he lunge at me, he was a zombie. I didn't even move as his teeth sunk into my neck. I screamed.

My eyes flew open and I was thrashing my arms around in the sleeping bag. Connor is usually the first to notice, but he was in the kitchen still sleeping with Shane, and Rebecca. Fredrick was up early and notice me thrashing around. He silently put down his bag or whatever he was carrying and and walked over to me. I could feel his hand on my shoulder and that's what stopped me.

"Ms. Emily, are you ok?" Fredrick says as he adjusts his glasses.

I must admit, I felt a little embarrassed to tell him about my dream, but it shouldn't bother me that much, but it was just Connor's eyes, and the blood. Dreams only let you a certain number of details, and that's all I can remember.

"Here drink this" Fredrick said passing me a bottle of water.

I drank it and calmed down a bit, it was much easier to focus when you drink a little water.

"What is wrong?" Fredrick said.

I didn't answer at first, still embarrassed about my dream, but it should be ok to say what it was, especially to Fredrick who so far, has a nice old man vibe to him.

"I had a nightmare about my friend Connor and…" I couldn't go on further after that.

"You know Ms. Emily, It is a normal thing to have nightmares" Fredrick says as he sits down next to me.

"Like myself for instance, once I had a nightmare about being trapped in a dirty warehouse and forced to clean it! Can you believe it?" Fredrick said smiling.

What he said made me a bit calmer, but that comment about a dirty warehouse and cleaning it sounded like heaven compared to my dream.

"Yeah, I guess I can't believe cleaning a dusty warehouse" I say smiling.

Then something in my head clicks, the way this man talks, his tuxedo, the way he is polite to everyone, it reminds me of a…

"Hey, are you a butler or something, because you seem to have that butler niceness in you" I ask.

Fredrick laughs and nods his head. "Yes, I am, I am a servant to Ms. Hills" He says nodding over the direction of the women and the child.

"Wait, do you know them?" I ask him.

"Oh yes, I've known the Hills family for a very long time. They're very nice people, even offering me a room in their house, that's when I knew I hit the jackpot" he says winking at me when he says the word "jackpot"

I smirk and start to giggle. I liked this guy and hearing him and listening to his story was refreshing, and I paid attention to every aspect.

Fredrick was born Fort Lauderdale in Florida, where he spent 15 years of his life as a child. Than after his parents got a divorce, he stayed with his dad in Florida while his mother and sister moved to Georgia to live with her parents. Fredrick stayed in Fort Lauderdale and mostly got amazing grades and graduated High School with no problems. He attended a collage I've never heard off, "Grandview University" or something, and graduated with a bachelor's degree. After that, he started looking for work and took up as a butler.

"Is it hard being a butler?" I ask.

"It depends on the family your stuck with" He answers back "Sometimes it's a breeze, and sometimes my body aches from pain, but overall the pay is good"

Then he tells me about the Hills family. He was assigned to them 3 months before the apocalypse began.

"Wait, I thought you knew them for a long time? You only have worked for them 3 months though." I say, confused.

"Well, the apocalypse does wonders for certain people, and I got a little closer to them than other families I worked with" he says sighing.

"Well what happened when the apocalypse began?" I asked.

I recognize his expression on his face, pain, and I instantly start regretting my words.

"Oh, you don't have to tell me, I was just- "I start to say.

"Curious?" He finishes "No matter, I think I'm ok to talk about it with someone"

Fredrick grabs two bottles of water for me and him and begins his story.

"It started when we were all sleeping" he starts "I was in the guest bedroom, Alice was in her room, and Taylor and Dave were in their bedroom. Dave was the father if you were curious. I was the first to hear the screaming outside. After flattening my blanket, I ran into the lobby of the mansion, were I saw that someone has broken down the front door and was screaming in the lobby. It was a woman, in a green dress, and she had blonde hair."

"When the women saw me, she ran and jumped on me, trying to bite me. I would have died if it wasn't for Dave, who came with a golf club, because he used to play golf. Dave beat her head in until the girl died, and Dave told me to round up the girls while he went to look for supplies. I collected Taylor and Alice, hiding in Alice's room. Alice had a pink suitcase, with all her toys and belongings. Taylor had a black backpack looking frightened."

"Then after Dave finished collecting food and supplies, he threw them into his black convertible and ordered us in, it took a little while to convince the girls to get in. Finally, we were on the road, and Dave explained what happened. He told me that a virus broke out somewhere in the world and it's spreading, it was turning people into lunatics, and people who have died where be reanimated from the dead and eating people."

Fredrick took a deep breath and looked into the distance, his eyes tearing up.

"What happened after that?" I asked.

Fredrick closed his eyes, a tear shedding down his cheek.

"I killed him." he says quietly.

"What?" I said, shocked "You killed Dave?"

Fredrick says nothing, he just continues with his story.

"After 3 weeks, I asked Dave if we could go to Fort Lateraled, since my father never moved when I left. Being the kind sole he was, he asked the girls to stay at the camp we set up by an abandoned motel, and he drove all the way to my father's house with what little gas we had. We were actually quite close to, so I thought, maybe he was still alive."

Then Fredrick investigated the distance again, tears going down his cheeks.

"My father was already dead…" Fredrick says.

I don't say anything, If I opened my mouth, I wouldn't know what to say.

"You know Emily, it's very normal thing to have nightmares, except this one was real" he says turning to me.

I just say nothing.

"I am very sorry" I finally say, if I didn't say anything, I would feel like shit.

"It is ok, you can't change the past, so you should just focus on what ahead of you' Fredrick says.

"But you said you killed him, did you mean your dad, or Dave?" I asked.

"Both, I killed them both. My father was dead, but his body wasn't, and he lunged at me, but Dave ran in between us, and my father hit him." Fredrick says quietly.

"I had a knife with me at the time, so I stabbed my father's head, and he slumped to the ground, Dave however was leaning against the wall, looking at his bite marks. We both knew what was going to happen. Dave gave me his gun and gave me one final order until the day I die." He says looking at the sky.

I just watch him until I say, "what was it?"

"He said, protect my girls until the day you die, and when Alice's birthday arrives, give her this, and then he gave me a bear, he had it in his pack, so he took it out. It was brown and fluffy and had two button eyes." Fredrick said with a smile.

My heart sank, because if he was talking about what I thought he was talking about. That means the bear I saw in the neighborhood was his, and I left it behind.

"I got back to the girls and told them what happened, Taylor slapped me and ran away with Alice in the convertible we used to drive. They didn't get far, because Taylor hit a roadblock. She had no choice to come with me, but she eventually forgave me." He says.

"SLAPPED YOU?!" I said a bit louder than I intended.

Fredrick laughs "Oh, yes. Left a red hand mark and everything, clear on my face" he says laughing.

"She should apologies" I say angrily

"She did" he says still smiling, "and Alice forgave me right away, saying she still loves me."

"So, from that day on, it's just been me and the girls, we've been into a lot of groups, and this is our most recent one" he finally finishes.

I feel happy, but still feel dread about him losing the bear.

"What about the bear" I ask, my voice shaking.

Fredrick stares into the distance, again.

"We were in this neighborhood, somewhere near this city, when a pack of monsters came out of nowhere, when we were far enough away from them, I checked my bag and it was gone" he says sadly.

I feel a knife stab me to the chest, why didn't I pick up that stupid teddy bear? Than I could have given it back to him. But I guess I shouldn't focus on that to much, after all, Fredrick did tell me not to focus on the past.

"And that's my life story, did you enjoy it?" he says.

"I liked it, I mean not the bad parts, but I am glad you told me." I say.

"Good, it's important to be honest with each other." He says smiling.

I hear Taylor from the bedroom starring awake and hear her thrashing around as well.

"That's my cue" Fredrick says, "You know, you're not the only one with nightmares" and then he gets up and walks down into the hall and walks into their bedroom.

I stare at him before curling up in my sleeping bag, I wonder what else has happened to him during the apocalypse. What about his mother and sister, did he already believe their dead? I don't really know what to think, so I just close my eyes, not afraid of the dreams that dance in my brain.

 **I like this chapter, and I hoped you guys enjoyed it to! As you can tell, this chapter is really all about Fredrick, are friendly neighborhood butler. I was planning to make this about learning all the survivor's stories and goals, but for some reason I couldn't stop writing about Fredrick, something about him makes me smile when I write him, so you could say this chapter is all about learning Fredrick and a bit on how Emily acts around other people. I hoped you enjoyed this one. Since I am not counting this as a** **main** **chapter, which means you can still read it and it involves characters growing, but you can skip past it if you like, Emily's perspective will be in this chapter and next chapter, sorry Connor! I am also keeping up the hint, since that will be in the next chapter.**

 **Now this is the part where I need** **YOUR** **guy's help. I am trying to plan a way to get the group out of the city, but I am having trouble coming up with logical ways, most of them just involve the rooftops, so this is where I as YOU for help. PM me, or review different logical ways to get out of the city in our groups state. If you are interested in this and want to give me an idea, remember that…**

 **The group is stuck inside an apartment building with zombies outside**

 **The escape latter is broken, which means that they'll have to jump if they escape through the windows.**

 **The apartment has a roof that leads to other roofs.**

 **There are cars on the street tipped over**

 **There is one person in the group who can climb high (Rebecca)**

 **And that's it. SEND ME IDEAS!**

 **Take care**

 **CandleFire45**


	6. Episode 1 - Part 5 - Trust Isuuses

**I am very sorry to say this but, after I post this chapter you might not get any new ones for a while, the reason for this is because I am having a seriously hard time in school, and I really need to focus for the next few weeks, also I learned that motivation doesn't last long so I might not post chapters every single day, but I WILL get this episode done. Finally, don't expect and updates at all during the weekend, my family has come up with a bunch of plans and it takes up my entire weekend. Don't worry, I'll try my best to get out as many chapters as possible before then, but to all of you who have gotten used to my quick update schedule, just know that this week might be a bit slower on chapters. Besides that, please send new characters and escape routes for our group! Enjoy the chapter.**

 **Emily Cardin – 17 Years Old**

I have never been so tired in my life, the second I hit the pillow I blacked out. I don't know how long I slept, but by the time I woke up, sunlight was streaming through the window, the fridge was moved, and Rebecca was sitting on the windowsill looking out into, I guess the horde. Alice was drawing on a notebook, with Taylor and Fredrick sitting beside watching her. Shane was sitting on one of those kitchen stools eating something. I don't know where Connor was, I guess either in the bathroom or in the bedroom. Nick was sitting on the couch, right in front of me.

"Had a good night's sleep?" he asked.

"Yeah, I did" I say, lifting my head.

Since the sunlight is out and there are no zombies chasing us, I get a good look at Nick. He looks about my age, around 17 or maybe 18, he has a black leather jacket on, concealing a basic white t-shirt that pops out of his jacket. He wears glasses, like Connor, only Nick looks stronger, and fit. He is really tall, especially with his boots on, toping in at 6'1, I'm pretty sure he is taller than Connor.

Nick smiles at me, but not a shiny smile, but a small genuine smile.

"So are you going to sleep on the floor all day, or do you want to meet some people, after all it looks like you guys are going to be stuck with us for a while" he asks.

"I hope not" I say looking around "being in this small apartment with 7 people makes me feel cramped"

"Tell me about it, I'm more used to going it out alone then with groups" he tells me.

Nick looks like the type of person I would see surviving alone, I mean, he has a katana on his back, a survival knife that is in a black plastic sheathe, a silencer pistol in his hand, and a crossbow on his back.

"Is that why you have so many weapons?" I ask.

"Pretty much yeah, who knows what situation you'll find yourself in these days" He says shrugging.

I can't help but notice his glasses, it reminds me of Connor, except Connor needs his glasses to see, is Nick like him?

"How did you end up in this group?" I ask.

"To be honest, I don't know either, I met them a week ago and they treat me like I have been a part of their group forever" Nick says sighing "If you are curious, I met them in a small town looking for supplies, they saw me and asked me to join them. I thought about saying no, but they were in a such terrible state back then, and they had a little girl, so I couldn't really say no"

I looked at Nick, really looked at him and saw a kind, funny, 17-year-old boy who wants to help others, not leave them behind.

"That was very brave of you" I blurt out.

Nick looks a bit surprised but doesn't say anything.

"Why would you say that? Nick asks.

"Because you had food and weapons, and you could have said no and kept it to yourself and survive with it, but you chose to help other people who were not your own, that's a very kind thing to do" I say looking at him.

It's hard to tell, but I think he's blushing, but he looks away before I can confirm it.

"It was nothing, it's just that, I didn't want other people to die and know I could have saved them, I couldn't live with that guilt, and besides, calling _me_ brave? You guys ran in without a moment's hesitation to save a little girl your barley knew, all I did was help them stay alive a little bit longer" Nick says looking down.

"Oh, come on, you kept the group alive, didn't you, I bet Rebecca couldn't do that" I say.

"She already has, she was the one who got us all up here, not me" Nick says.

"Yeah, were stuck in an apartment safe from millions of zombies outside without a way out, thanks Rebecca!" I say sarcastically.

Nick smirks and then laughs and seeing his smile for some reason made me laugh to, it's almost impossible to make me laugh, expect Connor and my father who could do it with ease, but Nick accomplished something that even my mother couldn't do, he made me laugh.

We laugh for a good 10 seconds when Rebecca comes over, she looks tired, and I wonder if she slept and all last night.

"What are you two laughing about? Nick you better not tell her about the tree story or I swear to god!" she says.

"I didn't tell her the tree story, I promised!" Nick says "but man look at you, the tree incident looks like nothing compared to how you look right now"

I don't know what Nick or Rebecca are talking about, but she does look like a mess. Rebecca has bloodshot eyes and her black hooded jacket is unzipped and has a ton of wrinkles, she has her hood down so I can finally see her hair, which is black but a part of it is dyed purple and blue, she has short hair but it's all messy and she has bags under her eyes, despite her best attempts, Rebecca looks like a mess.

"How about you stay up the entire night trying to form up an escape plan while making sure everyone is ok, and then come back to me" she says fake smiling.

I feel bad for bad mouthing her earlier and shouting at her yesterday, I guess being the leader is tough in a big group.

"Well if you two are done chatting, Emily, do you mind if I pull you away from you boyfriend for one second?" she says.

"Umm no, what do you want to talk about?" I ask shrugging.

"Just come with me" she says tired.

I glance at Nick who is still smirking at his mention of the "tree incident", I guess he doesn't mind if I go chat with Rebecca, so I grab my pack and put on my flannel jacket, with my black t-shirt underneath. I follow Rebecca to the window, Shane eyes me and Rebecca suspiciously, but doesn't move.

The fridge that blocked the window is back where it was, so now it's wide open, I can still hear groans and moans coming from outside, from the horde. I don't move, but Rebecca climbs out and climbs up the fire escape latter that goes up to the next apartment balcony. I slowly make my way outside the window and place my feet on the fire escape balcony.

I feel the wind on my face first, and it blows my hair the second I step outside. The horde is right below me, not even glancing up, although a few stragglers are reaching out for me, to taste my flesh, and my brains.

I look up, and the fire escape keeps going up and up, I don't know how far it goes, or how tall this building is, but Rebecca is up there, so I start to ascend the latter. I grab one rung, then the next rung, and climb. I am terrified of falling, and heights, so scared of heights, I must remind myself that we are just on the 3rd floor.

After making it to the 5th balcony, I can't climb anymore, Rebecca sees that I am clearly in distress and comes down.

"We can just stop here. Are you really that afraid of heights?" she says as she smirks.

"Um, yes, because of the wind and the ground and…" I can't finish.

"It's ok, were far enough anyway" she says, sitting down and putting her legs through the railings so her legs are dangling in the air.

I sit down to, but I don't dangle my legs off the edge, I wonder why Rebecca loves to climb so much.

We just sit there for a while, looking at the sun that is still rising. Were not that high up, but I can see farther then the park, where there are shops, apartments, hotels.

"So, what did you want to talk about" I ask kind of shaking.

Rebecca doesn't answer meat first, she opens her mouth, but closes it, looking down at the horde below. The wind is coming in stronger now, and I can feel my hair rising, Rebecca's short hair gently flaps behind her.

"I wanted to talk about our escape" she says to me "I just, I'm looking at this horde and I can't seem to find a way to leave without us dying"

I look at her face, she seems like worried, but serious. She is determined to get us out of here, and now I feel like shit for making fun of her.

"What are your ideas?" I ask.

"Well the first one that comes to mind is the roofs, we could climb the fire escape latter to the top of this apartment roof, and jump to each building's roof, but I am the only one good at climbing and jumping, maybe Nick can, Alice is to young, Taylor wouldn't go for it, and Fredrick's and old fart" she exclaims.

"What about we wait until the horde clears?" I suggest.

"I checked, it seems like this fucking horde goes on for miles, it's like they just appeared here to mess with us, but I'm determined to get out of here." She says.

Rebecca hold her hand onto one of the railings and uses her other one to point at the horde.

"YOU HEAR THAT FUCKERS, YOU DON'T SCARE ME! I FIND A WAY THROUGH YOU JUST YOU WATCH!" she yells.

She throws a brick into the horde for extra effect.

I just sit their and let her scream at the zombies below, they can't hear her though, but what do I know about zombies? All I know is that when you die you become one, and when your bit, you become one. Maybe the people are dead inside like Fredrick said and the infection takes over their bodies. I hope they die when the infection takes over, because if it's true that there aware, and can see the things there doing, I would lose it.

Rebecca spits out a few more sentences until she gets tired and leans her head on the railing. She looks like she could be a teenager right now, although I haven't asked what her age is.

"Hey, how old are you?" I ask

"five thousand, why?" she answers.

"Yeah, but, no like, seriously." I say.

She chuckles and shakes her head.

"nineteen years of age, is there a problem with that?" she says, turning her head toward me, smiling.

"No, it's just, I thought you were a teen" I say shrugging.

"I technically still am, I mean I am the total package of angry teenager, you get me?" she explains.

"Yea" is all I can say.

Rebecca says nothing, she just rests on her back, still having her legs dangle over. I decide to do the same. I slowly inch my legs between the rails and my legs dangle over the ledge. I feel, nothing at all under them, they just move on their own as the wind blows.

Rebecca sits back up holding a bottle of alcohol, she twists the cap and takes a few swigs before offering me some.

"Want some?" she asks.

"First of all, I though we were talking about escape plans, and second, no thank you" I say.

"Suit yourself" she says, shrugging and takes a huge drink.

I just stare in the distance as she sighs and takes another drink, she basically halfway through the bottle already.

"You know, as a leader, I don't think you should be drinking during a big situation" I start to say.

"HEY!" she shouts, startling me, she looks angry, but then her face relaxes, and she returns to her original position, leaning her face against the rails again. "You think I don't know that? All my life people have been telling me " _Oh, Rebecca, drinking is bad for your health_ " and " _You disgust me, how are you apart of the family_ " and shit like that. Well here I am still drinking, and where the hell are they? Dead, walking around like some drunk fuckers after a party" she takes another drink.

I feel weird as she talks about these people, people I don't know about at all. They were just faces that Rebecca knew and is telling me now.

"You know there was this one guy I knew in high school that I was friends with, the dumb fuck got held back so I was enjoying the life of an adult while he was stuck in senior year" she says. She pauses a bit, taking another drink before she talks. "When the outbreak began, he took me on his motorcycle and we took off, I still have no idea where my parents are or if there alive, but I don't really care, they were massive assholes anyway"

"So, it's just me and this guy, and for a couple of week" were doing okay, we got enough food, some water, and it looks like we're going to make it. Then out of the blue he starts talking about how he loved me and wanted to be with me, he just said a bullshit language I didn't understand, so I told him I wasn't interested, and this dumb shit is bawling his eyes out"

"I thought you guys were friends?" I say.

"I said in high school we were, after I grew the fuck up, I realized how pathetic I was hanging out with him, I'm telling you he had the ugliest mustache, and he had pimples all over his face and wore glasses, and it wasn't this guy's looks that made him fucking horrible, oh hell no, he was just so fucking boring to be with you know? Like I can take stupid people, but not boring people? she answers.

"So, you declined his request because he was boring?" I say.

"It wasn't because he was only boring, he just had that desperate look in his eyes I see in people when their thirsty for having… oh wait, your 17, I can't talk about that" she says avoiding eye contact.

"Oh. My. God." I say covering my face because I knew exactly what she was talking about.

"So yeah, I decline and as were walking he points a gun at me!" she says, at this point I know she's drunk, but for a second, she sounded serious, almost angry.

"HE PULLED A GUN ON YOU!" I said.

"Yep, he told me " _take of all your clothes or I'll do it for you when you're dead!"_ , he was fucking sick" she says.

I can't even form words, I just look away and don't make eye contact. Why is she telling me this?

"So yeah, if it wasn't for that random zombie that came up, I wouldn't be a virgin, and probably wouldn't be here to tell you this" she says smiling.

"I guess it shows how crazy people are out there" I say shocked.

"Oh, oh wait, oh my god no way, you think HE was the worst person I met, I haven't even touched on June 16th, 2017" she says, clearly shocked.

"PLEASE DON'T TELL ME!" I shout, clearly embarrassed after the first story.

"Ok, ok, I won't tell you, but you're probably wondering why I told you this, instead of focusing on the important stuff" she says looking in the distance.

"Yeah, why did you tell me that?" I ask.

She stares off into the distance, she looks like she is looking for something, but no matter how much I try I can't.

"People do some fucked up things sometimes, even I did fucked up shit, but no matter what happens, no matter how much you fuck up, and people fuck up around you, you always have to be stay strong, and I'm not talking a being physically strong either, because if your not strong, what's the point in surviving?" she says.

She stares ice cold at me, her black hair blows with the breeze, I stare right back, and I see a hint of a smile form on her lips, and I smile back, truly motivated by her words.

"So, I'm done" she says, so suddenly to.

"Wait, what?" I ask.

She throws her empty bottle into the horde and wobbles over to the latter.

"I'm going to take a nap" she says.

I stare as she heads back down, leaving me alone on the balcony. I don't come down for a bit, but I just stare off into the distance, watching the horde shuffle down the street. The real Rebecca would never open up to me like that, but she just told me her own story, her own history, something I am still to scared to reveal to myself again.

I close my eyes. I should be strong, so I can fight, so I can survive with Connor, and Rebecca, and Nick, and everyone else. I can't give up and I can't give into the despair of this world. I get up slowly, rising with the sun. People still believe the world is gone, there is no way to return to it, but I still believe their will be a day when all this will end, our stories told and left to the next generation to figure out where we went wrong, and until that day comes, I have to stay strong.

… _I have to stay strong._

 **I hope you liked this chapter! I really loved writing Nick and I have tons of Idea's for him, sorry Undying Rage984 if I messed up his character, please tell me if you want to me to improve him, also please tell me Nick's hair color and last name so I can write it! Nick was very fun to write, but I had a blast making Rebecca's section! She is so fun and angry and is someone who I feel is real, so I really like her! Next chapter is them talking about the escape, and the next next chapter is the escape.**

 **In this universe there is a rule for zombie bites, if a zombie bites a character or your character, there is three different factors at play. FIRST, is where the zombie bites you, if a zombie bites your neck, you might turn within a few hours, if they bite like your legs, then maybe a few days. SECOND, is how healthy they are, if your character is fit and healthy, it might take a little longer to turn, if there unhealthy, they'll die fast. THRID, where their located, I am going to make it so if the bite victim is in hotter climates, they turn faster, but if it's cold, than they'll turn slower. These are symptoms to recognize if a person is bitten if they hide it, they'll have nose bleeds, they'll feel huge amounts of pain when they are seconds from turning, they will not sleep. You may be wondering, why am I telling you this, well to know when someone is bitten and… no real particular reason :)**

 **Other than that, I hoped you enjoyed and please keep in mind I might not update as much as usual, but I'll try and get as many chapters out as possible.**

 **Take Care**

 **CandleFire45**


	7. Episode 1 - Part 6 - The Game

**Sorry for the delay, I am really struggling with how to move the story and introduce everyone, BUT DON'T WORRY! I will be able to get out group out of here. Also, I have a surprise to all those submitters when this episode ends so, stay tuned. But let's get this started.**

 **Connor Graf – 18 Years Old**

The sun was setting, and we still haven't come up with a plan, Rebecca remained drunk for a while, so we had to think of ideas, Shane suggested that the sewers would be perfect, and we agreed, except that the horde on the street was blocking it off, so we couldn't enter. Nick thought up of using ropes and then climbing up to the roof and tie the ropes down to cross the gaps between the building, it sounded like a good idea, but Taylor was screaming at Nick when he apparently suggested something so dangerous that it would get her daughter killed.

So, we came up with nothing, and to make matters worse, I could see an upcoming storm in the distance, it would be nice to have rain, but I wish it was when we weren't stuck here.

Soon the afternoon fated away, and night time was approaching, the sun was setting, and the orange outline shimmered in the distance. I looked back, and saw Emily, Rebecca, and Nick all sitting together in the living room, talking about things I didn't care about, but I decided to join them anyway.

Nick was sitting on the couch and Rebecca was sitting on the brown armchair. Emily sat on the floor, with her legs crossed, her mouth was smiling and laughing. I brought up a stool from the kitchen and brought it to the living room, it was only us out here in the living room, except Shane who was looking out the window, keeping an eye on the zombies below. I knew that Alice and Taylor must be in the bedroom, along with Fredrick I guess.

Nick and Rebecca were talking loudly, and Emily was laughing with what they said. Nick and Rebecca didn't notice me sit down, but Emily did and looked my direction.

"Hey Connor, want to join us?" She asked.

Now Rebecca and Nick noticed me.

"Nah, I just wanted to watch you guys talk." I replied.

"No way, you should totally join us Connor" Nick said.

"Besides, we were just about to get started on this new game, so you should join us!" Rebecca said, laughing loudly.

Nick turned to me "She's on her 8th shot"

So, Rebecca likes to drink, I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

"Yeah Connor, please join us, it would be fun with you." Emily said.

"Well, what's the game I'm signing up for?"

"Ok, so we call it, truth or drink, this game is pretty similar to the game truth or dare, except every time you refuse to tell the truth, you have to have a drink," Rebecca explains "The last person who has told as many truths as possible wins, or until we all pass out"

I have gone drinking before, so I was pretty used to feeling sick and dizzy when I walked home with my old friends, I knew though that Emily has never went drinking with me before, besides heights, I think she despises alcohol and cigarettes.

I probably didn't want to join, but I wanted to see what they would say, and I wanted to see if Emily was finally going to have her first drink tonight, so I said "okay."

"Awesome, oh, wait, Nick, go get Shane to come and play with us." Rebecca says.

Nick smirked and walked right up to Shane, he looked a little annoyed, but somehow Nick got Shane to play with us. Shane sat in between Nick and me on the couch, Nick might have looked a little annoyed, but he didn't say anything either.

"Ok, I'll start!" Rebecca says.

Rebecca scanned the crowd and landed her eyes on Nick.

"Shit." Was all Nick said

"Nick, have you ever had broken the law before the apocalypse began?" Rebecca asked.

"No, I don't think so at least, maybe I did a few bad things, but it wasn't against the law, so give me that bottle Rebecca." Nick exclaimed.

Rebecca handed Nick the bottle and he scanned the crowd, landing his eyes on Emily.

"Emily," Nick said, and then he paused, which is probably because he was still thinking about something "Emily, have you ever, kissed someone before?"

"Yes" Emily said without any hesitation.

 _Wait, what?_

Emily kissed someone, before me?

My heart sank a little, but I pretend I didn't even care about it.

"No way, who did you kiss?" Rebecca said.

"Nick said if I kissed someone before, he never asked me _who_ Ikissed before, now hand me the damn bottle." Emily corrected.

Nick shrugged and tossed her the bottle, Emily caught it, but I knew instantly who she was going to ask.

"Connor, what was in that notebook?" Emily says.

At first, I forget what she is talking about but then I remember Lucas's Journal, while Emily was sleeping or looking away, I read it, it told me everything about that boy's life. He was a senior, life changed in the apocalypse, it turns out they lasted for 3 months before bandits started to threaten them, I guess they raided there home and killed them, that explains why the family had bullet holes in their head.

"What notebook?" Shane asked.

"It's nothing, it just was a notebook about some random kid's life, I thought the notebook would answer what happened to that family, and it did." I said.

Emily nodded, and looked up and me.

"Can I see it?"

I hesitated, but there was really nothing important in the notebook I kept from her, so I pulled it out of my bag and gave it to her, and she passed the bottle in exchange.

I looked at everyone, I practically knew everything about Emily, so she was out. I was curious about Rebecca and Nick, but Shane had most of my attention.

"Shane, why do you wear a business suit in the apocalypse?" I ask.

I wondered this the first day we met him, it was kind of strange because it was the apocalypse, you could really wear anything.

Shane didn't hesitate.

"I thought if I ever found a group or whatnot, they would trust me because I had a business suit on, not if looked like a bozo." Shane answered.

I guess it worked because now he was here because of Alice. I gave the bottle to Shane and he took a very long time before he chose Emily.

"Emily, why did you want me into your group?" Shane asks.

Emily looks at me a bit nervously and looks back at Shane. I did always wonder why Emily invited Shane to the group, it shocked me when she did, for a whole year we never really went to other groups, we've seen groups before, but never had really made one or been in one.

"Because, you seemed like a nice guy, and because, you saved me, so, that's why." Emily replies.

Shane takes a second to nod and toss the bottle to her, she catches it and looks at Rebecca.

"Rebecca, did you ever, kill anyone before?"

"Oh, hell yeah, I've killed many people"

Emily looks kid of nervous and looks at Rebecca.

"Who did you kill?" Emily asks.

"You asked me _if_ I killed people, not _who_ , remember?" Rebecca says.

Emily smirks and passes the bottle to Rebecca. Rebecca drinks the bottle even though she said her truth.

"Nick, what is your greatest fear?" Rebecca says.

Nick looks a bit uneasy, but he still replies.

"Being forgotten." Nick simply says.

Were all quiet, except Rebecca who is laughing her ass off.

"That's your greatest fear? Come on, that is so lame." Rebecca says as she laughs.

"Think about it, I mean, were put into this world of death and destruction, and we have to survive it you know? And we go through all of these awful things, and then we die, but no one even cares, because there fighting to survive, people don't get second chances, so when you die, all of those friends and family, and adventure you had will go to waste, because no one, remembers anyone who died, before." Nick says.

Were all quiet, even Rebecca who must be seriously drunk, doesn't move.

I never though of it that way, what if I died? All of those things I did with Emily, and this group would be for nothing, because no one would even care about my life, none of us will be remembered if we die to.

"I fear heights, Nick, it isn't really the same, but I fear that stuff." Emily said.

"I am afraid of a lot of things Nick, I'm claustrophobic, I hate scorpions, and I dislike going underwater." Shane said.

I was surprised Shane came forward with his fears, maybe he is a nice guy after all.

"Sorry Nick, I fear pain, it sucks when that feeling goes through your body." Rebecca says.

Everyone looks at me, expecting me to tell what my fear is, but I don't really have any, maybe losing my glasses because I need them to see, but really nothing else.

"I fear about losing Alice," I say out of the blue "I hope she makes it through this when we all die, I don't want to see her…"

I can't finish, just the thought of Alice on the floor, screaming as a zombie or human slowly killed her made me insane. I think everyone feels the same, but Shane was gripping his axe handle tighter than ever before.

I don't know how Rebecca could go from drunk, to sober in 3 seconds, but I guess she just has a talent for that sort of thing.

Rebecca passed the bottle to Nick, but everyone probably lost the mood in playing the game.

"Emily, do you have romantic feelings for Connor?" Nick asked.

Time seemed to slow down as Nick asked that question, all I could see was Emily sitting down, I can tell she was trying to keep her face normal, but she clearly failed as she looks shocked.

Everyone is waiting, and I get nervous, will Emily really drink to keep the truth from me? Or will she tell me her true feelings?

Emily looked around the room, and I could tell she was struggling with her answer, suddenly, I didn't want her to answer, I didn't want her true feelings about me told in an old apartment building during a drinking game.

"Pass me the bottle" Emily says.

My heart stops.

"Really?" Nick ask "But I thought you- "

"Give me the damn bottle, Nick"

Nick passes it to her, and Emily closes her eyes and chugs down a quick drink. I've never seen Emily drink before, and this was her first time, to avoid answering a question about me.

After that, the game became distant, I forgot I was playing until the bottle came to me, I would ask everyone but Emily a dare, I am glad she didn't tell me, this wouldn't be the ideal location to tell your friend you love them, but then I had a sickening feeling after I had my fourth shot. What if Emily really doesn't have romantic feelings about me, what if she just wants to be friends.

The idea upsets me so much that I just stand up and walk out to the fire escape.

There calling out to me, but I don't care, I just go outside into the night. It's raining, but light rain, not heavy. I climb up the latter's one by one until I am on the 11th floor. I stop and hold on to the railing overlooking the city, I can see over the tallest buildings, and in the distance, I see a lot more buildings, but I can also see a clearing very far away, where the highway enters the other part of the forest.

My throat is burning from drinking, I forgot how much I loved it, I wish I could have taken the bottle with me, but I was so scared at that moment, so upset. A part of me scowls at myself, look how pathetic I am, getting upset that might best friend might not like me, but I don't care, all I care about is Emily.

That day during school, when I fell down the stairs, Emily was the only person who helped me up, everyone else stood by and laughed at me. After that, I found that she was the only one who sat alone in the cafeteria, so I sat next to her. Soon we were joking about our teachers, then the drama club, then the science club. Then we started to come over to each other's houses. I would love going to her house, her parents were so kind and nice, they felt like a second family.

Remembering those times when life was normal, makes me tear up. I remember the nights when me and Emily would sleep over and watch scary movies like _scream_ and _Friday the 13_ _th._ We used to skateboard together and stop by our local Walgreens to by some candy. Then prom, me and her were so excited, pretending we were asking all of these made up people, but I was really trying to work out the courage to ask her.

Then it happened, I stayed home that day from school, because my mother was sick, if the real world was still a thing and there was no virus, she would have been dead forever, but she turned and bit my dad. I…I.

I killed my dad, I left him, I ran to Emily's house, but her parents weren't there, so I ran all the way to the high school, it was chaos with teens running and zombies ripping them apart, I could have left, just go to My house and Emily's house and steal what I could, and just leave her, but I ran in, and I found her running down the stairs with other people, I took her aside and we stared at each other, but we both knew we had to go.

On the way out, I grabbed a gun from a security guard that had a few bullets left, we made it to Emily's house, but her parents weren't there, there was no bodies or blood, they was nothing, all the food was gone, and Emily's dad's car was gone. I took Emily to my house and we took what we could and then we both ran as fast as we could out of town.

That all happened a year ago, but I can still feel her hand in mine as we ran away, leaving everyone else behind.

Tears blur my eyes, so I wipe them away, even though it's March, the cold air makes me shiver, and I weep, I finally cry, a year of darkness and sadness makes its way out of me. I don't know who I'm crying for, Emily, my parents, everyone else who didn't escape. Why is the world like this?

I wipe the tears away and look up. The clouds have covered the moon, and everything was darker then usual, we could sneak out, but zombies could still smell you…

 _Smell… you…_

I look down, the zombie's barley even looks to each other, they all stumble around like there drunk. I remember when Shane suggested we use the sewers, and then it clicks, I'm so stupid! Maybe if we disguise ourselves in zombie smell, then we can sneak into the horde and then open the man hole and enter the sewers. It was perfect, but then it hit me, Fredrick unscrewed the escape latter that led to the ground, how could we jump down without attracting any attention?

Then Nick's comment comes to mind, he suggested we could use ropes to cross the gaps, but maybe we could use ropes to climb down the fire escape and reach the ground. We could also use the clouds and the night to our advantage, we could hide in the darkness.

I race down the latter, which probably is a stupid move considering it's raining, but it's raining lightly, I make it to our floor and run into the living room.

Everyone is there, except Emily, and there all looking at me, drunk.

"Hey! Connor! Guess who won!" Rebecca shouts.

I already knew, because Nick was looking very normal.

"It wasn't that hard," Nick says, "Emily quit when you left, Rebecca kept drinking, and Shane just didn't answer his truths."

"Now's not the time to play games! I know how we can leave!" I shout.

Nick opens his eyes wide in surprise and Rebecca and Shane, who are really drunk, are instantly sober and looking at me shocked.

"Wait hold on, you know how we can leave!" Rebecca shouts.

"Yes! If we cover ourselves in walker guts, we can go through the horde, and go into the sewers, and we can use the curtains and sheets to make a rope to go down the fire escape!" I say, then I remember the man hole "Oh, and we can use the rope or the fallen later to climb down the manhole!"

"That could work! We just would have to be very careful." Nick exclaims.

Shane is already tying to find errors in my response, but I know he knows that it's the most logical, and perhaps safest way to leave.

"Let's do it." Shane says.

"But when should we do it? The horde is still growing, and it's only a matter of time before they get in here." Nick says.

Rebecca looks up, and I don't see a drunk woman anymore.

I see a determined leader.

"We leave tonight."

 **YESS ARE GROUP IS GETTING OUT! Thanks everyone who gave me ideas, I was really struggling with the escape, but after I ran through what I did, I knew a solution. So now are group is going to leave! What do you think of the plan, do you think someone might die? Let's hope not ;)**

 **Now that are group is leaving, I want everyone to know that episode 2 will take place three months later after they escape the city, this episode should take place further up north so yeah. Anyway, I hope you liked it and get hyped for their escape in the next chapter!**

 **Take Care**

 **CandleFire45**


	8. Episode 1 - Part 7 (END) - The Escape

**THE ESCAPE IS FINALLY HERE. I want to thank everyone so far who has submitted a character, and I also wanted to thank everyone who gave me an escape idea, they were all great. As the Chapter suggest, this is the end of episode 1, I am sorry it was so short, but I really needed things to move along, but I am happy with it, if your upset with episode 1 ending so soon, I am very sorry, but I had to get this done before Saturday. I hope you all enjoy and get ready for the big twist I decided to put it!**

 **Emily Carden – 17 Years Old**

I sit on the couch in the living room, covered in zombie guts and blood, it smells horrible, and I swear the next time I see a river or lake, I am washing all this shit off me, hopefully the rain doesn't do that first. I don't understand why Rebecca is going on with this plan, or Shane, or everyone else, I certainly don't think this plan is a very good one, but what choice do we have.

We got the blood and zombie guts from a dead zombie in the bathroom. After Connor left the game, I couldn't take the guilt, so I went to the bathroom to cry, but it smelled so awful in there it was just so gross. After awhile Shane came in and told me what happened, Connor thought up of a plan to help us escape and we had to walk through the horde and stuff. So, Shane was pulling down the shower curtains and there it was, a dead male zombie who look fucking rotten. Shane brought him out and now were all covering ourselves up with this.

"Mom, it smells!" Alice whines, and to be honest, I couldn't agree more, it makes me gag every time I sniff.

Everyone is either getting blood on them, packing up, or checking outside. Nick is next to Connor, and there both looking outside to see whatever Shane or Rebecca are doing with the rope they made from all the curtains and blankets. Taylor is putting more blood and guts on Alice. Who has silent tears running down her cheeks, Alice's hair is in a bun, so zombies won't grab her, and her pink shirt and skirt are hidden in the dark red blood. Taylor has a messy bun on, she is entirely covered in blood, and she helps put blood on Alice's back.

Fredrick is organizing everything were going to take, which is pretty much everything useful we could find, this place didn't have much, but it did give us shelter for the time we were here, I won't say I'm going to miss this place, but we did have a few good moments here.

It's starting drizzle, but at a heavier pace, at this rate it will pour soon, so we must go soon. I get up and walk over to the window. Nick and Connor are looking out into the horde. There is a clearing around the escape latter that we can drop down to and then enter the horde, but that is still a lot of zombies, it's terrifying.

"Emily?" Connor says, "Do you know where the manhole is?"

I shake my head, to be honest, I haven't really paid attention when they were telling me what the plan is.

"Ok, see that building?" Connor says as he points down the street. I look and see he is pointing at a shop sign, if there was electricity around then it would have lit up when it was dark, but even though the sign is pitch black, I can make out that it says, " _Spy Shop"._

"The sign says spy shop," Connor says "the manhole is in between the spy shop and the park. So that's where it is."

"What about the rain?" I ask.

"We don't really have anything to cover ourselves," Connor explains "and we can't use humongous blankets to stop the rain because the walkers will notice."

"Walkers? Since when have we been calling them walkers?" I ask.

"I came up with the name because they always seem to walk no matter where they go," Connor says, "So I thought we should call them walkers, it seems better them calling them zombie every time."

I guess it made sense, I just watched Rebecca and Shane continue securing the rope, they look a little bit drunk still, but their eyes are filled with concentration and determination. They finally secure the rope, so it doesn't fall out, and Rebecca orders Shane to go get the others.

After a few minutes, Shane gets everyone out onto the fire escape, Fredrick hands everyone their packs, including mine.

"Thanks." I say.

Fredrick simply nods and smiles and turns to help Alice. Even though everyone is on the same fire escape balcony, my and Connor are off in the corner, alone. It feels awkward, and I think it is for Connor to. I want to tell him all I was trying to do was to hide my feelings so I can tell him later, but now I feel like an idiot, why didn't I tell him then? Or now? We are kind of alone and I could tell him I like him, but it wouldn't feel right now, it didn't feel right back during the game.

Then I realize that I have been saying that to myself the past year, anytime me and Connor were out and alone, and the sun was setting, the water was rushing, I would always tell myself that I could tell him now, but it wasn't the right time. I've been telling myself this when the world was still normal.

 _It isn't the right time._

How long have I been saying those words, because now they've led me from sitting on a hill doing homework together, to standing on a fire escape with dead people all around us. I have been trying to hide my feelings, but why? Why would I-

"Listen up!" Rebecca says, "Were going into a horde of shit, so prepare yourselves to be ready for anything."

Everyone is quiet now, listening to Rebecca as she explains the plan.

"Here is how were going to do this! Me and Shane will be in the front, so we can get to the manhole and open it for all of you. Nick, you'll be right behind us, make sure no zombie comes to us, and keep the girl safe."

Nick nods.

"Taylor, Fredrick, and Alice, you guys will be in between Nick and Emily, right in the middle. Taylor, I want you to be in front of Alice, and Fredrick, stay right behind her, understand!"

Fredrick nods, and Taylor just looks at Alice, who is shaking.

"Emily!" Rebecca says, "You'll be right behind Taylor, Alice, and Fredrick so stay close in case something happens."

"Sure" I say. I hope I'm good enough to notice if Alice and Taylor are in trouble.

"Connor, you'll be in the very back, you, Nick, and Shane have good weapons, so I want Shane and Nick in the front to protect me and the others, you stay in the back to protect Emily, ok?"

Connor nods and looks at me, he holds out his hand, but I don't take it.

 _It isn't the right time._

"Remember guys, this is the real world, don't go fucking around, stay close, stay together, and stay strong!" Rebecca finishes.

Her words make something burn inside me once again, determination, I am determined to keep Alice, Taylor, and Fredrick safe.

Rebecca is the first to climb down now. The rope tugs every time she moves down, but she makes it safely and waits for Shane. Shane descends next, it seems a little harder for him, but he makes it easily. Nick is next, and he whispers something to Alice and Taylor, then Nick comes to me.

"Stay safe." Is all he says before climbing down the rope.

Connor looks at me, but I don't look back, I feel as if I'm not in control of my body, why am I shunning him? Is it so I can make him second guess himself, only to surprise him later? I don't know.

Taylor climbs down, and she makes it safely. Alice is next, but she is crying and shaking, I want to reassure her that it will be alright, but Alice starts her climb down the rope.

Fredrick goes down next, "Good luck Ms. Emily and Mr. Connor" he says as he climbs down. I hear rustling and then the grip Fredrick had lessened, I think he fell off the rope, but it wasn't that big of a fall so I'm sure he's ok.

Now it's my turn, I start to position myself, when I stare at Connor, he looks worried, fearful that I may die in this horde. I walk towards him and hug him.

"I'll be ok, because your right next to me," I say, "were going to get out safely Connor, don't worry about me."

"I know that," Connor replies "It's just…just stay safe for me, ok?"

"I promise"

Then I go to the rope, it's tough to climb down, but I make it safely and land into the clearing, the horde takes no notice of me, so I guess the smell does work. I see Fredrick's head as he, Alice, and Taylor head into the horde, I take a deep breath and follow them in.

The first thing I notice is the sound. Thousands of moans and groans from all directions, the smell is so bad, I can't even describe it, is this really what zombies smell like? If so, I hope I never get bit, I guess it's a good thing they smell like this though, we fit right in with this mess. When Rebecca told me about the size of the horde, I thought I knew what I was in for, however I have not prepared for the number of zombies I see. There appears to be an endless river of them, all twisting and winding down the streets.

I look around the shambling mess that once were people. I see an old man who drags his leg as he moans, I notice one young female walker who wears a business suit and high heels. I notice a little girl in a bright pink dress who groans as she looks at me. I fear it's Alice, but this girl has black hair instead of blonde, I sigh, but I still feel tears in my eyes as I try and keep up with the zombies. All these zombies, they used to be people. I try to walk slowly as possible to match their pace, but all I want to do is run as fast as possible.

I can see Fredrick's head in the distance, as I walk. He seems close, so I walk a little quicker, then I forget that Connor is here right behind me if he left, I quickly turn, and I see Connor's face in the distance trying to keep up with me, so I slow down so he is a little closer. He seems worried, and very scared, I don't blame him, in a second all these things cold notice were real flesh and meat and tear us apart, so no wonder he's scared.

The rain is falling faster, wiping away some of the blood and guts, I notice a few zombies who look at me, but they don't pursue me, I just keep walking. I see the spy shop up ahead, were getting close, which means Shane and Rebecca could already be at the manhole and opening it up, lets hope we can make it.

Then I hear a scream.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

It must be Alice, there is no way any of us can produce that kind of sound. My heart freezes as I see Fredrick disappear in front of me and I hear a gunshot. The zombies around me are realizing what's going on and are coming toward me. The gig is up, I take out my combat knife and stab the first zombie I see in the face, it falls over and trips another one who I also stab. I swiftly turn around to see a zombie lunge at my face, but my knife enters its head.

Gunshots are everywhere. I see Connor shooting while backing up, he sees me.

"EMILY!" Connor yells.

I run toward him an were together, Connor takes three shots which hit two zombies. I take out a zombie on my right with a swift stab. Were surrounded by zombies everywhere, but it seems like were doing okay when I see it, the worst thing I've seen in my life.

2 zombies are pinning down Alice and are dragging her getting ready to take a bite, Alice screams and struggles as there preparing to eat her. I don't even wait, I run straight in and jump onto the zombie that's closest to biting her.

Connor takes the other one out but me and the other zombie are rolling around with each other. It gets so close to biting me, but I manage to avoid it. I try to grab my combat knife, but I can't seem to find it. Then I see it, next Alice as she gets up. Connor is running toward me, but I know he won't make it, I'll die in the street by a zombie and friend will be forced to watch.

The zombie rises his head and then goes into to take the bite, when suddenly, blood runs out of its head. I stare in shock as the zombie goes limp and lands on top of me, I think Connor got it, but I see her. Alice holds the bloody knife shaking hard, she looks shocked and the knife wobbles as she holds it. Alice just saved my life.

Connor comes and pushes the zombie off me and picks me up.

"here" Alice says in a quiet voice, holding the knife up to me.

"Thank you." I say taking it, and I smile at her, and surprisingly she smiles at me.

A gunshot over my head makes me and Alice duck, a zombie inches from my back falls to the ground, Connor reloads his gun, which I guess means he shot at that zombie.

"Shit! I'm out of bullets!" Connor yells.

"What!" I say!

"I said I'm out of bullets!" Connor yells again.

I look at Alice, she looks terrified again, I hold out my hand and she takes it instantly.

"Connor, what are we going to do!" I yell.

Connor looks to the spy shop, I didn't realize how close the spy shop was, and then I know what he's thinking.

"Follow me!" Connor yells.

I hold onto Alice and all three of us run to the spy shop, zombies try to grab us, but I stab them when they get to close. With all the panic going on I forgot where the others are, Shane and Rebecca might have escaped, because no doubt they were the closest to the manhole, I hope Nick is ok, he was close to the manhole, and he had a lot of weapons, so maybe he made it. My real concern is for Taylor and Fredrick, Fredrick is very old, and Taylor has no idea where Alice is, what happened to them?

We rush in the store and we close the door, the only problem is that all the windows are made of glass and we can see the whole thing from outside, and those things can see inside to. The zombies bang on the glass windows, smearing their blood all over it, Alice is cowering behind one of the shelves as they pound away.

Connor is rushing around the store looking for something I don't care about, I'm just focusing on what I see, outside, the Manhole is right there outside the store, all the zombies are focused on us, so I can see the manhole. The lid is open, and it looks like someone was able to make it into the sewer.

"This has all gone to shit! I knew this plan was a bad idea!" I say to Connor.

"What do you want me to do! Were fucking trapped Emily!" Connor says.

"Maybe we wouldn't be if you weren't fooling around!"

"Fooling around?! You were literally rolling around with a walker out there!"

"Stop calling them walkers, the name doesn't even make sense!"

"Just stop Emily, let me focus!" Connor yells.

I just stop and stare out the window, what has happened to me, why am I arguing with him, why am I being rude? This isn't his fault not at all, but I just feel mad, mad at the thought that Connor is mad that I took one drink, so I didn't have to tell him I like him, I can tell him whenever I like.

Connor comes back with a plank of wood, his face determined and ready to run.

"What the hell do you think your doing?!" I say.

"We have no choice, we cannot fucking stay in a shop with a horde outside!" Connor says.

"We did it before in the apartment!" I counter.

"Yeah, we did that because that was higher and had a good number of defenses, we stuck on the first floor in a shop filled with glass windows!" Connor says.

"Well what are we supposed to do? Run out with Alice and hope we make it?" I say.

Connor looks at Alice who is crying and looks back at me.

"Look, Emily, we have no idea where everyone else is, Taylor is no where to be seen, Fredrick is missing, and we don't even know what happened to Nick, we can only hope that Shane and Rebecca made it, but we have to make a run for it, if we don't then we all die, I die, Alice dies, please trust me."

I feel my heart break and then I realize I have been arguing and turning on my best friend ever since the truth or drink game, why am I acting like this in front of my best friend? I've been trying to hide me real feelings, but I shouldn't, it's caused me to be rude and dismissive to my best friend, and I don't want that, I don't want too to be apart or away from him.

"Ok…" I say, I have to trust him.

Connor nods.

Connor takes Alice's hand, and I take out my combat knife, I position myself into running position, so I run out the second Connor opens the doors, we take one long look at each other, then we open the door and run.

The whole world seems to fade as we run into the night, I didn't even notice that the rain is pouring, it isn't until now I do though, Alice runs right behind me, with Connor behind her hitting zombies with his plank. I stab any zombie that comes to close, I slit one's throat, I stab one's head, I don't stop though, I hope Alice is behind me keeping up.

We make it, I look behind me to see Alice and Connor flying through the horde, I look down, and see a latter heading down into the sewer, I stab the zombies as Alice starts to climb down, she is so scared she practically flies down the latter. Connor fights the other zombies, but there backing us up near the manhole.

"EMILY GO!" Connor yells.

I nod and climb into the manhole, it smells but not as bad as the zombies, I make it to the floor quickly, with Alice shivering and looking at me, but then, I don't hear Connor coming down, and then I hear him scream.

My heart stops and I race to the latter, I climb up and see him, thousands of zombies are cornering him, and he fights back, but he is surrounded.

"CONNOR!" I scream, and I try to climb out, but Connor shoves me down the latter.

"Emily!" Connor starts.

"CONNOR NO!" I see him pulling the lid to the man hole.

Connor stares at me as the zombies corner him, and then I know what his last words are going to be.

"I love you" he says.

The last thing I see is tears in his eyes as he closes the lid in front of me.

"CONNOR NO! CONNOR!"

All I can hear is screams and gunshots.

"CONNOR!" I bang onto the manhole cover.

"CONNOR NO, LET ME OUT!"

I hear him, his footsteps I think, running, but then I hear screaming in the distance, and for a second, I fear my life has ended.

"CONNOR!"

 **{Next Time on The Walking Dead Broken World}**

The camera fades to show the city that the group was stuck in while Emily and Alice walk into the woods. "I don't know if Connor is dead or alive, but all I know is that he saved my life." Emily says as she walks into the woods.

The screens fades to black and then shows a man pointing a bow toward a girl we don't know. The girl has light brown wavy hair and it seems she attempted to steal their supplies. "WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU!" the man shouts, pointing his bow and arrow in her direction. the women look's frightened but remains calm and tries to talk to them. "Please don't hurt me, I was just- ""BULLSHIT, YOU WERE TRYING TO STEAL OUR SUPPLIES, WHO DO YOU THINK WE ARE!" the man yells.

The screen fades again and shows a corpse of a girl, that Emily and another man are looking at. As Emily moves it's head a voice over of a man says "You don't know how desperate people are to survive until you see it for yourself first hand"

Then it shows Alice, who wears a white jacket, black shirt, and her pink skirt, she holds a gun, pointing it at a target and shoots.

The second she does, the screen turns black and fades in to show three men beating a woman and taking her supplies, with a voice over of a woman saying "The walkers aren't the monsters, the men are"

Then the screen shows Shane holding an axe and swinging it into a door, while a woman screams.

Then it quickly shows a close up of Nick's face as he screams after he got shot.

Then it shows a wounded Taylor with a sleeveless shirt, and a bandage on her arm, she holds a gun toward a man who holds Alice at gunpoint. "You won't get out of this alive" Taylor says.

Then It shows Emily in the woods, it's dark, but she turns around with a flashlight, after supposable hearing something, after the flashlight passes the screen, it turns black and all we get is a voice over of Emily saying "We've only been play acting survival, now, things are about to get real"

 **{Episode 2 – Brothers in Arms}**

 **AND LOW AND BEHOLD, THE END OF EPSIODE 1. Now maybe I did rush it and I apologies for doing so but get excited because new survivors will be introduced in Episode 2! This was my best attempt at making one of those "next time on the walking dead" things they play after an episode ends, if you don't like it, I won't do it anymore, but if you do like it, I'll try and flesh it out. Now that episode 1 is over, what did you think?! What happened to the other survivors? Where is Episode 2 going to take place? Is Connor Alive or Dead? WHO KNOWS, but I would love to hear your thoughts. I hope you guys enjoyed it and I'll see you all for episode 2!**

 **Fun fact: Brothers in Arms, the title for episode 2, is a title to a Cuphead song, I think**

 **P.S: To spoil it for you, Nick and Shane are still alive, but I'll keep the others a secret.**

 **Take Care**

 **CandleFire45**


	9. Episode 2 - Brothers in Arms

**WELOCME TO EPISODE 2! Surprised it's coming out so soon, ME TO! To be honest I was just excited to work on episode 2 as fast as possible, and I wanted to answer some questions you guys had, one, Connor will not have his POV until we find out what happened to him, I'm not going to spoil anything, but... just don't jump to conclusions about Connor's fate yet. Two, Episode 2 will take place far up in Tennessee, in the east section of Tennessee, they're going to be stuck there for a while, but I want to move things very slowly now, I want to introduce new groups, threats, religion, stuff like that. And lastly, I will be introducing new survivors, so get your guys hope's up! Enjoy the chapter!**

 **Three Months Later…**

 **Emily Cardin – 18 Years Old**

I wake up with a start, almost screaming until I realize that whatever nightmare I had wasn't real, just like Fredrick said, " _It's a very normal thing to have nightmares",_ except I don't even know if Fredrick is alive or not. There are a lot of things I don't know, but I don't want to search for an answer, not yet anyway.

It's been almost three months after I escaped the city with Alice, I don't know what happened to everyone else, I can only assume Rebecca and Shane made it out alive, Nick might have made it, I doubt that Taylor and Fredrick would have survived the horde, and then there's Connor… I try, and hope Connor made it out, maybe he was super-fast and made it to the spy shop, or he snuck his way out, but I can't seem to find a logical reason without flying into a problem.

Is it even possible that Connor survived? I don't know, I keep seeing him in my dreams, every day I see him hugging me, laughing, talking, only for him to die in the street, alone, without me. I scream his name, only I hear no response, I hear silence in my head.

I shake my head and try to think of positive thoughts, but nothing comes to mind, the only thing that keeps me calm is my photo of my parents, and Alice. Alice is sleeping in a blue sleeping bag right next to me, she is breathing softly. Maybe I shouldn't take it so hard on Connor missing, Alice's mom, Taylor, is also missing, the last time I saw her was when she climbed down the rope to enter the horde, I have no idea where she is now.

Alice starts to clutch her pillow, her eyes are shut tight, she seems to be having a bad dream, so I lightly shake her awake. Alice wakes up just like I did, breathing heavily and looking around franticly, but she calms down as she slowly realizes that whatever dream she was having wasn't real. She looks older then she used to when we first met, it's hard to believe she is only 10.

"Had a bad dream?" I ask.

Alice nods her head.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

Alice shakes her head, I don't even know why I bother to ask, that's her exact same response every time she has a nightmare, but I don't complain, I don't like telling people my dreams to, it makes me embarrassed.

Alice turns away from me and grabs her pink backpack, I don't pay much attention to her after that, I just roll away from her and reach out for my backpack to, I pull out my family photo of my birthday. My mom and dad are still in their same places, smiling and laughing as I stare down at my birthday cake, this was taking three years ago, did any of us have any idea what would happen, obviously not. The picture was taken in 2005, June 28th, which is my birthday.

Then I remember the date, I haven't been keeping track, but I remember now, it's June 28th, 2018. I am officially 18 years old now, except there will be no big birthday party for me, today I have to go on a supply run with Josh, 43-year-old Josh who is constantly making bad jokes as we both look for anything useful in the town of Townsend, Tennessee.

I groan, and my head falls back on my pillow, today is going to be another great day, and Connor won't even be there to help me through it.

 **Sorry for, sort of, technically lying to you guys, I was telling the truth when I said I had family plans on the weekends, but I was allowed to bring my computer, so HERE IT IS! I apologies for this short chapter, I guess that is how it will be, the beginning of each episode will be a bit shorter than other chapters. Now you probably already have a lot of questions, first of all, Instead of starting it right after Emily escapes the city, I decided to start it three months later, and then cut to flashbacks every now and then to learn what Alice and Emily went through alone, secondly, Alice and Emily for the time being are with a new group, which consists of two man, and two women, not including Alice and Emily, and, the one probably on most of your guy's mind, I will be introducing more SYOC survivors, don't worry I have not completely forgotten about them, I just am trying to find a place for them where there arrival will make sense, until tomorrow…**

 **Take Care**

 **CandleFire45**


	10. Episode 2 - Part 1 - Scavengers

**Sorry for the delay, it's funny that when I began this I said that I would probably update every Sunday, and Sunday was the only day when I didn't post anything. Lol, anyway, hello again, if your all curious I will introduce a new survivor in the next part, so get hyped if it's yours! Also, March 20** **th** **is approaching, now It pains me to say this, but I have gotten so may amazing submissions, and I love them all, but with the amount I am getting, I may have to stop allowing people to send more, I want to try and get every Submitters character into season 1 as possible, but I am trying to move the story, and with the amount I am getting, I may have to stop it at points to introduce them. So, you can still submit if you want, but after March 20** **th** **, that's it, no more submissions, sorry. Okay, now let's get on with the story.**

 **Emily Cardin – 18 Years Old**

Alice decided to go to sleep again, so I just laid down in my sleeping bag. Through the tent I could see shadows of trees and bushes start to move by the positioning of the sun, they slowly glided through the tent. I try to think of what decisions I made to get us here, sleeping in Josh's dead wife's tent. Would it be different if we all just waited for the horde to clear? What would happen?

My guess is if we stuck together, we might have been able to stay together, I don't think Shane wanted other people to join our group, but it would be nice to sit with Rebecca in an old tree and sit by Nick while he watches Alice and Taylor play together and listen to Fredrick's old tales of butler hood. I don't even know what me and Connor would be doing, if me and him were alone in the woods, it would have been the perfect time to tell him I love him to, but now I'm alone, and he might be…

I decided to get ready, I'll do anything not to think of Connor dead in the street. I got my backpack which was filled with food, some medicine, my combat knife in its sheathe, my family photo, a bottle of water, and a pistol that was fully loaded. I took my time to organize my things and then I quietly slipped out of the tent.

I instantly noticed the change of the temperature, I could already feel the heat on my skin, and the sun was baring down on us all. Last year, when me and Connor were together, it was a little colder then the other summers, me and Connor had to wear a jacket to keep warm, we both joked about how much hell we were going to face in winter, and oh god we did. But this summer, it's the exact opposite, it's almost boiling outside, I take off my flannel jacket and wrap it around my waist, exposing my black t-shirt.

Then I see them, Josh and his son Lewis. Lewis is almost my age now, he has short brown hair, and is thin, he is also a bit taller then me even though I am one year older now. Josh on the other hand is huge, I don't know how much he weighs, and I don't know how much food he ate to get that big, but he was fat, and he was tall to. He had a big beard and always had a hunting rifle on him.

We met Lewis and Josh two months ago, after we escaped the city, me and Alice were alone, I still had my backpack, but I was low on food, and soon we had to scavenge for food. Me and Connor never really bothered to hunt since we got so much stuff at the beginning at the apocalypse, and we scavenge a lot of things, but when me and Alice tried to scavenge, we almost didn't get anything. Me and Alice were close to starving when they found us. The day we met them I fainted and when I woke up we were at there campsite, I considered running and taking Alice with me, but then they gave me food.

I remember starting at the food, it was like it came from god himself, I devoured it all in one sitting. I got a taste of what it's like to crave something when Connor devoured those Oreo cookies, it was funny at the time but now I know what he went through.

We couldn't leave without risking our lives, and Lewis and Josh were very nice to us, so we've been staying with them ever since. I've been learning to hunt and scavenge under Josh's guidance and I'm doing whatever I can do protect Alice.

Josh is watching Lewis trying out the bow and arrow he gave him, Josh tries to let him use one of his hunting rifles, but Lewis doesn't really like guns, so he decided to pick up using a bow, he was terrible at it a first, but he's gotten better, yesterday he landed an arrow on the target.

Josh notices me.

"You ready to go Em?" Josh says.

I always loved Josh's voice for some reason, it was a mix between deep and soft, it kind of reminded me of Shane, and even though I don't like the nickname he gave me, I still enjoy hearing it.

"Yep, are you?" I reply.

"Yea, we should probably go now, these old bones aren't getting any younger"

Then he just starts laughing to himself, he always laughs when he tells a supposed "Joke", but the way he laughs almost makes me laugh, it almost makes me forget that Connor is missing…

"Lewis!" Josh calls out.

Lewis is right outside the campsite, Josh set up mini targets, so we can practice shooting, Lewis looked focused, but the second his dad called he looked a little annoyed.

"What!" He calls back.

"Me and Em are going on a supply run!"

"Ok! I'll stay and take care of the girl!"

Josh looks a bit worried and calls out again.

"You sure you don't want to come with us! I can show you how to- "

"I said I'm fine staying here dad!"

I didn't like the way Lewis usually talked about his dad, he wasn't spoiled or anything, but it seemed like Lewis never really wanted to talk about what his dad wanted to talk about.

"Okay then fine! Make sure no walkers come and take you away!

Lewis nods and goes back to shooting his arrows, one sticks on the target.

Me and Josh get our things ready again and we set out. The campsite they set up fades the further we go into the woods. They are supposed to pack up now and head further north, but there actually settling in for a bit, as he tells me, but with the way the campsite looks, it looks like there staying for a long time.

The campsite is set up on top of a little hill with no trees, The tents are usually in the center of the hill, but are spread out, so me and Alice are near the campfire and Josh and Lewis are near the entrance, of course Lewis and Josh have the biggest tent, complete with a small living room area, and two site bedrooms that are connected to each other and the living room area. There is a big brown canopy that covers the campfire so when it rains, it won't dry it out. The campfire is in the center, with chairs so we can sit near it, Josh has also set up lanterns on branches in case it gets to dark, we usually don't need to turn them on, but we sometimes do. Right next to his tent is a generator, that powers his mini fridge, so the drinks stay cold. Right near the camp is a station wagon with a lot of gas left in it, he also has stocked up on gas cans, that is where he puts most of his storage. Finally, a little further away from the camp, is a target range he set up, so we can practice shooting things.

It's a bit crazy how much stuff he has, I asked where him where he got it all and he told me that he went camping a lot, so he usually stocked up on camping supplies. He also loved to eat, so he bought a mini fridge because the bigger one he had was getting crowded, and since he likes to hunt a lot, he got flashlights and lanterns and guns and set up the target range, so he can prepare to hunt.

I guess he was VERY lucky because when the apocalypse came, he instantly took his wife and Lewis into the car, packed up all the stuff he could and drove off, they kept heading north, because that's all people were doing these days, and a few days into it, just when things seemed to be getting better, his wife got bit. He never really tells me about his wife other then she died, and she was hot, I feel like there's a bigger history to it, but I don't ask him anything that might get me, and Alice kicked out.

Josh walks further into the woods, I follow as quickly as I can, silently watching his blue hiking backpack go up and down on his back, he is carrying his hunting rifle now, and he's checking how many bullets he has. I don't usually strike up conversations with him, but it was dead quiet, and it felt weird to just keep walking.

"So what areas are we going to hit?" I ask.

"We stay away from downtown, to many walkers there, and make sure to check some of the houses sheds, last time we did we found a working radio." He says.

"Sure" Is all I say.

Josh looks at me and then he says something completely out of the blue.

"You know, maybe will find them there."

"What?"

"Your friends, I don't think all of them made it, but there's a possibility, right?"

I know he's trying to cheer me up, but the thought makes me depressed again, there's no way will ever see them again, I know it. Once you split up you go different ways, if some of them are alive, they might be In North Carolina by now, and I'm stuck here.

"Yeah, maybe" Is all I can say.

We continue walking in silence as we get closer and closer to Townsend. I don't know why Josh suggested the thought of me seeing any of my old group members again, I know I might never see any of them again. I just wish things were the same, I wish I was still with Connor, I wish we never thought up off the escape plan and just waited together, I know we had to leave, but I just wish…

As I'm pondering a memory surfaces in head. It was the day I helped Connor to the nurse's office. I didn't really think much of it until now. That day I was walking at the time with one of my friends Beth, she started going on and on about her new car, homework, cutest boys in school, when I heard a crash and people laughing, when we got to the stairs, Connor's glasses were on the floor broken and he was struggling to get up.

No one helped him, not even my friend Beth who donates to charity a lot, I would have kept walking but seeing him there stumbling around for his broken glasses made me feel horrible, so I walked out of the crowd and helped him up, his books were all over the floor so I picked them up to, and together, I led him to the nurses office.

We were right at the door when he said thank you.

"I just helped you walk, it was nothing." I remember saying.

"Well, I am blind without my glasses, so you helping me walk is kind of a big deal for me." He said.

"I know, but please don't feel the need to return the favor or anything, I just wanted to help out."

Connor at the time looked young, looking down embarrassed, it might have been weird for him to stand next to a girl, he looked like the type of person who never has talked to a girl before.

"Anyway, just be careful ok?" I said.

Connor nodded his head.

After that day, I caught him staring at me more then once, one day, my friend Beth didn't come to school, and I was sitting alone at our usually table when Connor came to sit by me, he asked me to help with his math homework and I said sure.

It was obvious though that he knew what he was doing when it came to math because he got the answers instantly before I did, but I didn't mind it, I enjoyed his company. Every time Beth and I weren't hanging out, I usually hung out with Connor. We both used to just ask for help on homework we had, but then we started to talk about things I never told anyone, and he did the same.

Soon we were watching funny horror movies, playing video games, and talking about life. Connor had a dead brother named Jason, my parents were on the verge of breaking apart, we talked about things that we could never say to any living soul.

The feeling of happiness generated into even bigger feelings, and soon, I liked him, he was cute to me, and very funny and kind. I could tell the more we hung out the more he liked me too. But we never really said it, we just continued being best friends, but that feeling of love lingered inside me, it was still there at school, at home, in my room, at the movies, when prom came up.

Then the apocalypse happened and that feeling of love faded away, I was more focused on my survival and Connor's survival, both of Connor's parents died and who knows where the hell mine are, so it was only me and him, fighting walkers, scavenging for food, we spent more time together then I ever thought was possible.

Then it happened, the feeling of love happened again, and I liked him, but I didn't want to tell him, not yet, I wanted everything to be perfect, a perfect location, a perfect dress, a perfect world.

But I held back, I never told him, and we just continued surviving, I never really loved him so much until that night, when he was about to die, and he chose to save me and Alice, he chose to tell me rather then wait and I feel like such a piece of shit, even though it's been three months.

All of this happened while me and Josh were walking to Townsend, the memory of when I met Connor made me even sadder, because now I know I'll never see him.

Finally, the town came into few, right across the street was a bundle of houses, with little trees and a lot of grass and vines in between them, we have been entering the town this way for a month, we've taken a lot of stuff here, so we needed to keep moving.

"Remember, just like the other times, stay close to me, and try not to go off by yourself." He said, and then we took off into the town.

Josh led the way, we walked deep into the town, we avoided the downtown area like he said and focused more on the houses further away from it, there was a lot of stuff Josh found that others, like myself, wouldn't be able to see, he saw hidden compartments containing forgotten food, he stole gas from cars I no longer thought worked, and he picked up backpacks from other undead survivors that didn't make it.

Although, to his credit, Josh couldn't get everything he saw. I had to crawl through tiny spaces to get stuffed away flashlights, I climbed up onto to roofs to get a better vantage point, and I did find a lot of stuff in the shed that he couldn't find.

After, I think 3 hours, we were slowly running out of shops and houses to scavenge, we've been to this place a lot and now we keep seeing the same streets and houses. I think it occurred to me and Josh at the same time that we have run out of places to look for stuff.

We decided to take a break by in a small playground, Me and Josh sat on the bench together, I looked through the things we got while Josh was looking at his gun. Even though this was probably the last run in this town, we got a lot of things, cans of food, notebooks for writing, flashlights and water. I turn to Josh, trying to show him all of the stuff we got, my backpack only had a few things, me and Josh often split our supplies we found, so I knew his backpack had a huge bounty of goodies, but Josh didn't look happy, he even looked mad.

"Josh? Are you ok?" I asked.

Josh didn't look up from his gun, but he did hear me though.

"No" was all he said.

Usually people hide the fact that there not okay, me and Connor did it all the time, but Josh was different, he didn't hide things besides his dead wife, which is completely understandable.

"What's wrong?"

Josh finally stopped looking at his gun and he stared at the swings that gently swung with the little breeze that showed up.

"What am I going to do about Lewis?" he quietly said.

"Lewis? What does that mean?"

Josh finally looked at me.

"My boy is 17 and he still doesn't know how to hit a target," Josh replies, "I keep telling him about the way things are and how he's going to have to make some decisions growing up, but he never listens, that's why he offers to stay with the girl."

I don't say a word, but when he said that I remember this morning, when Josh tried to get Lewis to come with him, and how Lewis said no, I guess Lewis wanted things to be the same, I did to.

"So, why is that a problem?" I say after a second.

"What's the problem? The problem is my boy is acting like a child, he needs to know how to defend himself, and to defend his family, and he shouldn't be going on about how his mother's- "but then he stopped.

"What? His mothers what?"

Josh didn't look me in the eye, but he just kept looking at the swings again.

"I'm worried about him Em, he has no idea what's, out there."

I don't say anything, I just sit there watching the swing rock back and forth. We don't talk for awhile again, but then I feel light drop on my face. I look up and see that the clouds rolled in, covering the sun. I felt another drop, and then another. It was going to rain soon.

"Come on, pack up, we need to go." Josh said, struggling to get up because of his weight.

I took my bag and slung it across my shoulder. Me and Josh started to leave, I looked around at all the houses we broke into, suddenly that memory of me and Connor walking down the neighborhood before we met Shane resurfaced, and suddenly I wanted to cry.

I remember the sun setting, and the light wind, and Connor's blonde hair as he looked at the map. I missed him so much, it hurt to think of him, but I continued to, I remember that amazing science project we worked on, and the time we ate ice cream after school, and the way we both laughed when Beth stepped in dog poop.

It sucked, it sucked that he was missing, and we weren't together, I wanted to scream, and I almost did until we got closer to our camp site. Then I saw it, Lewis was holding his bow at something, but I couldn't see what it was, Alice was further away, near the entrance. Lewis was yelling at something.

"Good lord what is he doing?" Josh mumbled.

We got closer when Alice saw us, she ran to me and we hugged each other.

"Emily! Someone tried to take our stuff, but Lewis saw them!" Alice cried.

Me and Josh stopped.

"Who is it?!" Josh said.

"A girl, but she speaks weirdly"

"Hold on." Josh said, and he walked right where Lewis was.

"Stay close to me okay?" I said to Alice.

She nodded her head and we both went to confront the stranger. We walked up the hill and we saw Lewis shouting at the girl, Josh was trying to calm him down, but Lewis was still shouting.

Then I saw her, it was a tall and slender woman who had both of her arms up, she has wavy light brown hair that flows down her back, her skin is fairly light, but she has rosy cheeks and high cheekbones, she looked very young, but she didn't look like a teen, she must be a young woman.

Then she speaks.

"I am terribly sorry monsieur, I was just looking for supplies and I came upon this camp."

She had a very strong French accent, meaning either she studied the French language, or she came from there to here.

"WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU" Lewis shouts.

The women looked frightened, which isn't surprising since Lewis was pointing a bow at her, but she remained calm and tried to talk again.

"Please don't hurt me, I was just- "

"BULLSHIT!" Lewis interrupts, "YOU WERE TRYING TO STEAL OUR SUPPLIES, WHO DO YOU THINK WE ARE!"

"Lewis! That's enough." Josh says lowering his rifle.

"Dad! This woman tried to steal our stuff! And your- "

"I SAID QUIET!" Josh shouts.

His voice is so loud it makes me jump, and it makes Lewis lower his bow, Lewis looks pissed, but Josh's glare makes it cower away.

"I am terribly sorry miss; my son here apparently doesn't know how to speak."

Lewis looks mad, but he doesn't say anything.

"No, it is my fault, I am very sorry, if I'd known there were people here I would have never stolen." She explains, that French accent just really throws me off for some reason.

"It's okay, we usually aren't rude, my name is Josh Perlak, and this is my son, Lewis Perlak. Over here are Emily Cardin and Alice Hill." He says pointing to us.

The women looks at us and smiles.

"Ravi de vous rencontrer" she says.

"What?" Alice says behind me.

"It means "nice to meet you" in French." She says.

So not only is the girl very pretty, she is also French, surprising.

"What's your name?" I ask.

She smiles once again.

"My name is Sophie Dumont, I hope we can get along."

 **I hope you guys liked that chapter. I knew Sophie was going to be in episode 2 and I am so excited to write her! Thank you paperkite for Sophie! As for the others, I am planning to add two more in this episode so finger crossed! I'm also trying to make a mini episode showing all the POV's of your guys characters! So, look forward to that. Anyway, I hoped you liked the chapter, and don't worry, we should find out the fate of our old group soon.**

 **Take Care**

 **CandleFire45**


	11. Episode 2 - Part 2 - Those Rainy Days

**Hello everyone! Here is another chapter, it isn't really anything exciting, just some more character development. The next part or maybe the next next chapter will have some twist, that I WONT spoil, but I will say that I am going to introduce a new villain, give me some tips and ideas for villains, also, now I will allow a villain OC, only two though because I want this season to be long and have a dreadful villain, If you really want to submit a villain however, then maybe in the next season. Alright, I hope you enjoy.**

 **Emily Cardin – 18 Years Old**

The rain was dropping hard, and I could see little puddles begin to form on the roof of our tent. Alice was having a lot of fun pushing on the roof where the puddles were, and we watched as it went down our tent walls and onto the ground outside.

It was crowded, if I thought sharing an apartment with 6 other people was bad, it's harder sharing a tent with Alice and Sophie. Even though Josh invited her to sleep in his tent where there was an extra room, she declined and said she wanted to sleep with us, nothing weird or wrong about that, but now it was a little tighter in the tent then I remember.

Now that she was closer to me, I could see her in much more detail, she had grey-blue eyes and amazing lashes, she had full lips and a ski-slopped nose, and she was thin, but aren't we all? Right now, she was wearing a white sweater, and loose jeans that have to be held up with a belt, she had taken off her leather cowboy boots, and she had a big leather jacket that was near her.

She looked very pretty to be honest, I don't know how someone is able to preserve their natural beauty in circumstances like these, obviously Sophie is bit thinner than other people, but I doubt she cares, I think.

It was raining for a long time, and Alice kept poking at the puddles on our tent roof. Sophie just sat there, reading one of the books she had with her.

It was nice listening to the rain, I liked the sound of it, and it was cozy to be near, just get some shelter, snuggle with a drink and blanket, and your set. I wish I could still hear the sound of rain without fearing it, but then I think of the other sounds, when the rain dropped on me when I walked through the horde, the screams, the gunshots, and then I saw Connor one last time before he…

"So, Sophie," I start to say, "How are you?"

It was pretty sudden, but I would do a lot of things to keep those memories of resurfacing. Sophie looked a little surprised at my sudden interest for a conversation, but she smiled.

"I am doing quite well, how are you chérie?" she says.

There she goes again with the French language, I guess she just can't help herself because she comes from there.

"I'm doing fine as well, thanks"

Then we sit in quiet again, the only sound is the rain pounding on our tent. This is kind of awkward, I started the conversation, so I guess I should finish it, but I don't know what to talk about. Sophie doesn't engage either, I guess we both don't know what to talk about.

"How old are you?" I ask.

"21, and you? She says.

"18, today's my birthday"

Sophie smiles.

"It is your birthday? Congratulations." She says.

Josh didn't even mention my birthday today, so I'm happy someone at least was happy.

"Thank you" I say, smiling a bit.

Again, silence, this was really awkward, even Alice stopped poking the puddles on the roof.

"Why do you speak so weirdly? Alice asks.

I stare at Alice who is looking at Sophie seriously, she did not say that to her!

"Alice!" I say.

But Sophie is giggling, I start to calm down when I see she doesn't mind the question.

"No, it's okay. You see Alice, I come from France, so I have the learned the French language at a very young age, but ever since I came to America, I've been learning the American language as well, so I know how to speak two different languages, although, I might still have a strong French accent." She explains.

"Oh! Is that where Paris is! Have you seen the Eiffel tower!" Alice says.

"Oh yes chérie, I've seen it many times, but even though it is lovely, it isn't one of the best attractions in my opinion." She says.

"WHAT! WHAT COULD POSSIBLY BE BETTER THE EIFFEL TOWER!" Alice yells.

This made me, and Sophie laugh as Alice stared at us in confusion. I liked hearing about another place beside our own, and I liked Sophie talking about France, when I was young, I used to dream of going there, but I've grown out of dreams at this point, at least good dreams.

Soon, Alice and Emily were talking like they were old friends, Alice mostly asked about what living in Paris was like. I just sat quietly and listened to the rain banging on our tent. I don't know how much time went by, but soon it was nighttime, Sophie asked Josh for one of the lanterns so now there was a bit of light we can see.

We stayed up a bit later though, we didn't really talk about our past, but we did talk about makeup and fashion. Even Alice was into it, and it turns out because her mother was rich, she was more experienced in knowing what to wear then all of us.

During the conversation, Alice took Sophie's hands and stared at her fingernails, I didn't notice before, but they were painted pink.

"You painted you nails!" I exclaim.

"Yes, I like to paint my nails, whenever I find nail polish that isn't dried up." She says.

After looking at Sophie's nails, Alice shakes her head and throws Sophie's hands away in disgust, which almost made me crack up considering how young Alice is.

"No, no, NO! These won't do at all! You come from France?!" Alice shouts.

Sophie looks a bit surprised, but I am containing myself from dying of laughter.

"Pink fingernails don't go with," Alice says, as she waves her hand around Sophie's face, " _This._ "

I don't know if Sophie was offended or not, but I couldn't tell because I was about to scream with laughter with the way Alice was acting.

"Alright then, what do you suggest?" she says.

"Good thing I came prepared" Alice sighs as she pulls out her backpack, she digs around until she finds whatever she is looking for. She then pulls out yellow shiny nail polish that looks brand new. Me and Sophie's heads explode.

"Where did you get that!" I say.

"I always come prepared, I need to look good in front of people, so that way people don't hate me."

Sophie and I giggle a little before Alice takes Sophie's hands.

"Now, watch and learn."

Before we knew it, Sophie's finger nails were yellow and shiny, they didn't really match her outfit, and they looked very pretty, and Sophie loved that it was yellow.

"Yellow is my favorite color!" she squeals, "Que vous Alice."

"I have no idea what that means, but thanks!" Alice says.

I begged Alice to do mine next and soon I was in my sleeping bag with light red nails that match my flannel jacket that's tied to my waist. I looked at them in awe and I was quite happy with them. Sophie liked hers to, although I was a bit jealous that Sophie got the cool shiny nail polish.

After a few more hours of playing and teasing, everyone got tired and we went into our sleeping bags. Alice was fast asleep in her clothes, and I couldn't see Sophie, but I believed she was sleeping to, we were all wearing are clothes we wore today.

Now that all of the playing and laughing had stopped, I was forced back into the awful reality of this world, I just lay in my sleeping bag, trying to close my eyes when all I see is Connor's face. I can't sleep at all, I just listen to the rain that drops on our tent. The rain reminds me to much of our escape, I haven't seen them in a long time, but how in the world would we ever meet up when we don't even know where we are?

Then I thought of everyone around me, the only person I really know from the old group is Alice, Sophie is new, and even though I like Lewis and Josh, they didn't really mention my birthday, and if they did, it was probably so small of an act that I didn't notice. Then I remember it's my birthday, I'm officially 18 years old now, the last time I had a normal birthday was when…

I silently got my bag and took out the photo with my parents. My mom was still smiling, and my dad was still laughing, and there I was staring at my cake, like a child. I can't believe this used to be my family, my life, where are they now? Just like Connor, I have no idea what happened to my parents, Connor's parents died, but I couldn't find mine when it all happened.

Maybe they are still alive, but if that's true then I feel sick, it means they left their daughter to die, they left there only child to die. I could give them the benefit of the doubt, I could say they packed up their stuff, and were trying to get me at the high school, but no one came for me, no one at all, not even Beth. The only person who saved me was Connor, just like I helped him.

I clutch the photo in my chest, even if they did abandon me, even if they left me alone to die, I still miss them, I miss my mother's smile, and my father's laugh. I miss everything.

"I wish you guys were here" I whispered.

The entire tent was quiet, but the rain kept pounding down. I could see the puddles growing bigger on its roof. Then I heard rustling from one of the sleeping bags.

"It's hard, isn't it?" Sophie said.

I raised my head a saw Sophie looking at me, her eyes piercing through the darkness to stare into my soul. I almost jump, but I somehow manage to stay in my bag. She doesn't say anything, but her light brown hair shines a bit brighter in the dark.

"What do you mean?" I say.

Sophie looks down at her pillow she was holding.

"It's hard wondering about what happened to your loved ones, right?" she says.

I feel pain go across my chest.

"Yeah, I think about them sometimes, my mom, and dad" _and Connor…_

"I think about my family too, how there doing in France, I fear not knowing about them, not hearing from them."

I look at Sophie, who's yellow nail polish shines in the dark, her eyes are tearing up. "I'm sorry to hear that, I think about my family to a lot, I wonder how there doing." I say.

We just listen to the rain, and then I notice that it's not pouring anymore, it's just raining normally.

"What do you think would happen?" she says, "if the government somehow fixed all this?"

I never thought of that before, I wish things were normal again, but what would happen if the government somehow was able to stop the virus, and fix humanity, obviously it would never be the same again, knowing something like this occurred. But would that be a good thing or a bad thing? Maybe bad, maybe good, I don't really know, it's pointless now to think of what will happen if this ever ends, because I have no idea if it will end.

When I don't answer, Sophie lays down in her sleeping bag again, I can't see her, but I can hear her.

"I would like to think everything would be the same, and that we could all go back to our normal lives."

She yawns and lays down in her bag.

" _Bonsoir Emily"_ Sophie whispers.

I don't know what she said, but I guess she said " _goodnight_ "

I hold the photo closer to my chest, I wonder what Sophie meant by all that, but it was nice talking to her a bit, but then I realize that Sophie has it much worse then me, my family is in the same country, and I might be able to see them again someday, while Sophie's family is on the other side of the sea, with their own problems and own thoughts, maybe there dead right now, and Sophie has no way of knowing.

I feel like I understand Sophie a bit more, and I want her to feel happy and glad, but I can't do that while she sleeps, so I decided to go to bed as well, but as I am, I hear her voice.

 _"sombre comme la nuit, et lumineux comme le soleil, les particules qui se tournent vers la poussière, et même quand le monde se refroidit, je serai là pour votre âme..."_

Sophie is singing a song I don't know, she is whispering it, but it sounds amazing, her voice cuts through the air, reaching my ears so I can hear her amazing voice, she sings so gracefully, with so much emotion and love, that it helps me drift off to sleep.

" _Je serai là pour votre âme..."_

Those are the last words I hear before I lose conscious.

 **Thank you for reading this chapter, I must admit, it's not my favorite one, it was quite hard, and I had to change it three times. Either way I hope you like it, Sophie is so much fun to write, and even though this chapter is not some of my greatest work, I am so excited to continue to write her. Also, the song that Sophie sings is something I made, because I just like writing songs, again, not my best work so don't go translate it, lol. Also, get hyped for the next chapter, because a lot of things are going to be happening.** **  
**

**Take Care**

 **CandleFire45**


	12. Episode 2 - Part 3 - The New Crew

**Hello everyone! Sorry for the delay, my computer has been freaking out lately and I haven't really had any motivation to write, but I will try to post chapters whenever I can! Also, thank you to everyone who has been giving me advice for my story, I will try and work on the spelling like a lot of you said. Also, I am very sad to say, but this SYOC is now closed, I am very happy with the number of submissions I got and I want to thank every single one of you who took the time to write them out and send them to me, and I am sorry to the ones who were going to submit but didn't or couldn't, so yeah, I am no longer accepting new characters, I got so many in fact that I might have to put a few into season 2, DO NOT WORRY THOUGH! I will try and get as many people into season 1 as possible. Now, sorry for my rambling, let's get on with the chapter you've all been waiting for! (hopefully)**

 **Emily Cardin – 18 Years Old**

I don't really remember what happened after I slept, but my guess is that I had a few good dreams, because there is no way that a song like Sophie's would make me have nightmares. It was actually a peaceful night, you would think walkers would be roaming around the woods looking for us, but I never heard a single groan or moan that night.

Soon the sun was rising, but even though it was hot outside, my sleeping bag felt good, and I snuggled deeper into its embrace, it was very cozy and I the pillow was very big and soft, I wonder if Alice and Sophie were feeling the same sensation I was having.

"LEWIS! GIRLS! GET UP, IT'S TIME TO EAT!" Josh shouted.

I groaned into my pillow, the sleeping bag was way too comfortable to get up from. I didn't hear any sign of movement from Sophie, but soon Alice gave into Josh's call and got out of her sleeping bag.

"Come on guys," Alice said yawning, "Josh is calling us, and I'm starving."

"five more minutes…" I mumble into the pillow.

"Come on Emily!"

Alice started to shake me awake now and the sleeping bag no longer felt as warm and cozy, so I groaned and got up, my eyes felt heavy and I mostly just wanted to crawl back into the sleeping bag and kill anyone who tried to stop me, but I knew that since I was up, there was no going back, so I just grabbed my backpack and just sat there clutching it to my chest to try and wake up faster.

I don't know what time it is, but I would have to guess 7:00 in the morning considering the how the light looks outside and how I feel miserable right now. It reminds me of before the world went to hell, when I had to actually drag myself out of my bed and walk to my school with Connor, he always looked so focused even though he just woke up, believe me, I never did, students would sometimes stare at me in the halls because some days I stayed up so late that I practically growled at anyone who tried to mess up my few seconds of sleep, even the teachers.

I wasn't growling right now though, I was just dead tired, but I know me, and Josh must go out again and scavenge in Townsend since we're running out of locations to pillage. So, after getting some sensation into my body again, I grab my boots and put them on. I sit down for a bit longer before I decided to head out, as I leave, Sophie finally gets up, mumbling something in French that I can't hear.

After last night's rainstorm, there is mud everywhere and I hear a squish every time I move, everything is just a bit darker then it was yesterday, including the tree bark and the target range planks. The car is covered in raindrops, but that will always dry off. The area under the canopy actually was dry and when I got under it, the ground didn't feel hard or wet.

Josh was sitting on one of those chairs surrounding the campfire, eating a can of beans, I don't know what type he was eating, but it doesn't matter since it's the apocalypse and it's ok to eat anything that's safe to put in your mouth.

I sat down and waited, I was still feeling very tired and almost dozed off a few times, but I managed. Finally, Sophie and Alice came out together. Alice was looking more energetic then tired, for 7:00 in the morning, which in my opinion defies all the laws of nature, time, and space. Sophie on the other hand clearly looked tired, her light brown wavy hair was a mess, she moved way slower then Alice, and she had dark circles under her eyes.

At least Sophie and I were fighting off the urge to sleep while we ate apples and carrots because Lewis wasn't even conscious as we ate, he was sleeping right on top of his bow which was in his hand, luckily there were no arrows on it. Josh himself didn't look too great, he looked weary like he stayed up all night, or maybe he was sad about something.

We ate without speaking to each other, we were either all way too tired, or had nothing to talk about. Alice was happier than usual and actually was talking as she drank some water in a bottle.

" _I did Sophie's nails last night!"_

" _Can you believe that Sophie doesn't like the Eiffel tower? It's shocking right?!"_

" _Sophie, can you teach me how to speak French like you?"_

As much as I like Alice, she was talking so much that even Josh got a little annoyed, but none of us could really get mad at her since she was a child. A lot of her questions seemed to center around Sophie, who was dozing off, but Sophie still tried to be polite and acknowledge them.

After breakfast was over, which really felt like dinner to me, Josh called a meeting. All of us who weren't fully awake was still having trouble listening, mostly Josh talked about how much food we have, which wasn't a lot, and how many days we have left before the horde swarms the area, which wasn't a lot. Pretty much he talked about the status of everything until he finally talked about what was on everyone's mind, except probably mine.

"Listen, guys, I wanted to talk about Sophie- "Josh started.

Before he could even get the sentence out, Lewis magically transformed from dead tired to wide awake.

"We're going to punish her, right? Because she stole from our camp, she DESERVES punishment!" Lewis starts.

"Lewis, stop now before I take the bow and shoot you myself."

Lewis stayed quiet after that.

"So, Sophie, we need to talk about what you did yesterday," Josh continues, "Obviously, I know that you had no intention of trying to cause harm or hurt my son or Alice, but you did attempt to steal our supplies and that is quite a big deal in my case."

Sophie said nothing at all, she just sat there listening to Josh. I must admit, I was kind of nervous on what he was going to do to her, I haven't really thought about how Sophie almost stole are stuff, but even though she might have put our lives at risk for some food, I still didn't want Josh to kick her out of here.

"After thinking about it for a while, I have decided not to really punish you, mostly because I am too lazy, and I am happy for you whipping my son up to shape, realizing what was happening and tried to protect the camp, it almost makes me proud of him."

I sighed in relief and I think even Sophie was surprised that she was getting off the hook. Lewis, however, wasn't as cheery.

"Dad, you're kidding me! This girl almost stole our stuff, and you're letting her off the hook! This- "

All Josh needed was one simple glare and that ended the conversation.

"Like I said, I'm not going to punish you, but I will give you two choices. First, you can leave, and I can let you off with a few things to start off with, sure I might be wasting supplies, but my wife's final wish was for me to help as many people as possible, and I am going to make sure of that," Josh continued.

At the mention of his wife his eyes teared up, but he got rid of them very quickly. He paused before speaking again, looking around at me, Sophie, Alice, and Lewis.

"Sophie, listen, even though you almost stole from us, and you made me have to deal with Lewis rambling the entire night, I like you, so your second option is to stay with us, there are a few good people in the world, and I feel as if your one of those people."

Lewis didn't even say anything, but he was glaring at Sophie, who right now had just finally woken up for real, her face was in a mixture of surprise and a bit of happiness. I was kind of happy too, Sophie was nice enough, and she kind of helped me with my nightmares, and for some reason, Sophie reminded me of Fredrick, only not black, old, and male. I don't know why, but she just does.

"PLEASE SOPHIE, JOIN US, IT WOULD BE SO COOL!" Alice yelled.

"Are you just saying that because she comes from France?" I ask, smirking a little.

"...maybe…" Alice replied.

Sophie giggled a bit and shook her head, I admit, I laughed a bit too.

"Again, you don't have to join us, but it would be nice to have a new face around." Josh said.

Now Sophie was quiet, looking around at each one of us, I could almost tell exactly what she was saying in her head as she scanned us. She looked at the woods for a few seconds, then at us again, and then made her choice.

"Ok, fine, I'll stay," Sophie declared, "To be honest, I kind of miss hanging out with people."

Alice shouted in excitement, I have no idea how she hasn't attracted any walkers yet, but I liked that Alice was happy, if anything, I hope Sophie's choice makes Alice forget about her mother missing just a little bit.

"Well then, Welcome to the crew, it's a pleasure having you on board," Josh said.

Lewis was still sulking, but he didn't try to ruin it, all he did was go over to the target range and try to use his bow. All of us, however, celebrated Sophie's choice, sure it wasn't a monumental moment in history or anything, but I was glad to meet someone new.

"Ok, ok, let's settle down now girls, we have a lot more news coming up in a second," Josh said after he stopped laughing.

Alice and I stopped celebrating and settled down, as Josh continued talking.

"Now I don't want to ruin the mood, but, sadly, we have to leave this town soon."

My heart didn't break or anything, in fact, I knew we overstayed our welcome in Townsend, Tennessee, but there was something sad about leaving this town where we have scavenged repeatedly.

"Today is our last scavenge Em, so let's make it count, okay, that is all I have to say." Josh finished.

After that, I got my backpack ready and met up with Josh, and Alice was about to drag Sophie to our tent to probably play or something when suddenly, Josh stopped her.

"Hold on Alice, I want Sophie with me today."

Alice looked a bit surprised.

"Why?" was all she could say.

"If Sophie is coming with us I want to see what she can do, she was smart to have almost gotten are stuff, so I want to see how she can scavenge, and handle a weapon."

Sophie's face kind of darkened a bit when he said weapon, but it happened so fast I'm sure that no one else but me noticed, which made me a bit curious. Josh tried to hand her one of his bows, but she said d thanks and took out a knife she had stashed away in her bag.

"Are you sure you want to go out with them?" Alice asked.

"Sure, I am, it will be nice to go out into the town and see what type of treasures there are waiting to be discovered." She replied.

"Ok…" Alice said, kind of sadly.

I don't know why Alice has taken such an affection to her so much when we only met a day ago, but I guess she is nice and kind to people, so there might be one reason. It was sad to see Alice sad, so I went up and touched her shoulders as I crouched down.

"Hey, when I go out there I'll try and get you something nice, ok?" I say.

Alice looked down and then I heard her sigh.

"Can you bring back mommy then?" she asked.

My heart snapped because even though I know that response was meant for Taylor, which is her mom, I almost mistook it for her talking about my mom. Once I remembered that, I calmed down a bit, but it still made me sad, Alice mentioning Taylor reminded me of all my old friends, Nick, Shane, Rebecca, and Fredrick.

 _And Connor…_

"I can't promise anything, but I'll try and see if I can find her," I say quietly, "Don't worry about Sophie, she'll be back soon, and then will be on the road together."

Alice smiled a bit and I smiled back, I felt bad for the groups that didn't have a child because, without one, life must be dark then. After that, Sophie talked to Alice for a bit, then she went to get her big coat to put on, then Josh told Lewis to look after the camp, and then we were off, walking through the woods.

I didn't see this before, but I guess after it rains in the woods, it comes alive. That's how I thought of it as I walked along the trail that led us to Townsend. The trees felt bigger and darker than usual, the bushes became greener, the dormant animals that once hid from the walkers, were now flying around the place. Sometimes though, I would see an orange painted symbol of a wolf face on some of the trees, which I didn't pay attention to, although I think they weren't here before.

Sophie noticed though and spoke up.

"Josh, do you see that in the trees?" Sophie asked.

"Of course, I did, it's just some stupid symbol for maybe a group or something." Josh replied.

Sophie didn't respond after that, and we just kept walking in silence. I wasn't really paying attention to it that much, it didn't even worry me about the symbols, anyone could have drawn them, but all I could think about was what Alice said.

After that Taylor comment, it was hard to not think about anyone else other than Connor, I miss him so much, Connor and I used to walk around our local park like this, and even though it wasn't really a forest like where I am, it still reminds me of that.

It took longer to get to the town than usual as the mud made everything sloppy and messy, but soon, we made it to the road and were right where me and Josh entered yesterday. Something instantly felt wrong as I stepped onto the sidewalk, even though I was just here yesterday, something felt very off, however, I couldn't tell what it was. Sophie was the last to come out of the woods, stepping over a long branch as Josh explained how we were going to scavenge.

"Ok, unlike last time, we are going to the downtown area of this place, we've ransacked these houses three times and I am sure it's the same for all the others, so we're going to move closer in, ok?"

Me and Sophie nodded, and soon we were walking down the sidewalk to the center of the town. Me and Josh have never really been to the downtown area, mostly because there were walkers swarming the place, so we didn't know what to expect until we got there.

On the way, I saw things that made me feel a bit uneasy. I've been to this town before, so why was I so nervous right now? I couldn't place it, but there were tons of signs wrong that made me feel a bit nervous, there were bullet holes in some of the houses now, and bullet casings on the floor, like someone, was shooting violently.

It wasn't until we made it to downtown that I knew for sure something was wrong. Me and Josh took out our weapons, expecting to see tons of walkers roaming around, but there was nothing in the streets, in fact, what I saw when we made it to the center of the downtown area made me want to throw up and run away.

In the center of the street was a pile of walkers stacked on top of each other, not only that, they were also burnt, making the smell horrible. Josh didn't respond to what he has seen, but Sophie was holding her nose, gagging just like I was.

There was no way an animal just killed all these walkers, in fact, it's been a long time since I've seen an animal attack a walker, but whoever did this, must have been human.

"Who the fuck did this?" I ask.

"I have no idea," Josh said, "but someone was definitely here recently."

I looked around the street, across from the pile of bodies to the left were rows of ransacked buildings, their glass windows were broken, and some of the things of that store were out in the street, across the street was a decaying park, where the statue in the middle was tipped over, broken. The entire downtown area was shaped in a square.

I don't know who could've done this, maybe a huge group, or a herd of settlers looking to stay here and build a community. Whatever happened though, it hadn't been pretty. As Josh inspected the pile of corpses, Sophie went over to sit down at the park.

"I can't take this smell." She explains.

I nod and watch as she walks away, I stay around for a bit, watching as Josh inspects the pile. I step a bit closer, poking at one of the walker's head, it's a girl, whose face in black from ash or whatever it is. I noticed many bullet holes in her body, too many in fact, like multiple people shot her at once.

Then I see it, there are tire tracks on the road, like someone who had a car rushed out quickly. There were multiple tire tracks, and all of them looked big like they were riding big trucks instead of cars.

"Josh, what if it was a gang of people, or maybe the army?" I ask.

"I doubt it's the military or government, those assholes retreated to California and left us all for dead, but maybe it was a gang of people," Josh said.

Then I heard Sophie coming back, urgently.

"You guys need to check this out."

Me and Josh followed Sophie into the park and to the statue that was tipped over and on its side. I didn't notice it before, but there was a creepy orange smile spray painted on where the deer's mouth was. Nothing unusual, but then there was something on the stand that used to hold the statue. On it was a plaque talking about the town and its history, but someone spray painted over it, with red spray paint, and they painted these 5 words.

 _DON'T FUCK WITH THE WOLVES!_

We just stared at it, I thought it was just dumb kids at first, but then I saw the wolf symbol again, the same one on the trees earlier, indicating that this, must be a gang. I felt a shiver go through my spine, this type of message was not a friendly call to a settlement, it was the warning of a terrorizing gang somewhere nearby.

"Who are the wolves?" I ask.

"They must be a gang, they must have come here for fun and just shot as many walkers as possible, then blew it to where ever they go." Josh said.

We all stared at the message, not sure what to make of it, I mean, all me and Connor have had to deal with was walkers and avoiding people, but now I might be closer to an enemy then I want to. I want to leave, but I don't know how to tell them without making them mad or annoyed.

"I've seen this before, in a different town not too far from here," Sophie suddenly said, "Before I came to your camp, 3 days ago maybe, that town was kind of like this, only it was fresher and much more recent."

Josh stared at her, and he surprisingly looked a bit shocked, but then that turned to anger in a split second.

"Then why the fuck didn't you say anything!" Josh yelled.

Sophie, a little surprised by his question and intensity, stepped back a bit.

"I didn't think it meant anything! I didn't think they were this close to your camp!" Sophie rebutted.

"Well, if would have been good to know! Especially after you saw those symbols in the woods!" Josh said.

"I didn't know, ok?! It didn't feel like a good time to bring it up! What was I supposed to say? " _Um, guys? You know those symbols in the woods the probably mean nothing, yeah, I've seen them before!_ "

I didn't want them to fight, not over something stupid like this, so I stepped in between them.

"Both of you stop," I say, "It doesn't even matter if these fucking " _wolves"_ came here, will be gone soon and we can kiss this place goodbye, so let's let It go for a second and just go back."

Sophie seemed to calm down, but surprisingly, Josh looked a little bit angrier then he was before.

"I don't care if that group was in another town! If there close by, that's enough for me to get my son and me the fuck out of here with Alice and Emily!"

Sophie's anger was returning, and I knew that soon it would be a full out curse war, I don't even know why we are fighting, we only just assumed the wolves were bad people, but maybe they were good people and were just trying to help people by clearing out the area, but I don't know, there is something hostile about that message, and the bullet holes all over the place didn't help either.

I was about to tell them to shut the fuck up when I heard screaming, and not just any scream, it was a women's scream.

Whatever Josh and Sophie were going to say stopped and they both listened to it, and the scream got louder. It was certainly a women's voice, but for some reason, something tugged to me about the type of scream, it felt very familiar.

"Who is that- "Josh started to say.

But then the women screamed again, and this time I knew who it was, I knew the women without even seeing her body and face yet, but my blood ran cold and I ran as fast as possible away from the park, away from the sign and Josh and Sophie, and headed toward the woods, because I knew who this women's scream belonged to.

It was Taylor, and she was screaming.

 **I hope you all like the chapter! I am not proud of it, but I am happy I got it done, and now things are about to get even crazier. I wish I found a different way to introduce the wolfs, but I like the was I did, so I hope you like them, speaking of the wolves, I will explain who they are next chapter, but right now, let's just say I think we just found ourselves some villains. I hope you guys enjoyed this!**

 **Take Care**

 **CandleFire45**


	13. Episode 2 - Part 4 - Know Your Friends

**Hello guys, I am so sorry for the delay, but I am back! You might be wondering what took me so long to get this chapter out, well there are a couple of reasons. The first thing is that I was struggling to find out where this chapter was going, after the last one, things kind of ended like a cliffhanger, which I guess is good, but then I had major problems with the next chapter, I was somehow trying to make it fit nicely so it wouldn't feel too sudden, but the last chapter had such a cliffhanger ending, that I didn't even really know what to do next. The second thing is that I was nervous to even put this up. I am a shy person and get offended easily, and even though I always like criticism to improve, my mind thinks it's someone insulting me rather than helping. I am not talking about any of you guys though, you guys are so kind and nice to me that I can't thank you enough, it's other people I'm worried about, so don't worry if you think I directed this to you. Finally, the third thing, which I don't want to talk about in full detail, is that my life has been a mess for a couple of days. I don't really want to go into detail, but all you need to know was that it was bad enough to make me stop writing for a bit. So, after all that, I want to thank you guys who were patient and understanding, it made me happy to know that you were okay with waiting a little, as long as I got better, so thank you, and I think your reward is long overdue, so here is the chapter, I hope you enjoy.**

 **Emily Cardin – 18 Years Old**

My feet pounded on the street as I ran, that sound alone made me remember track, the sport I took in high school, but it wasn't only the sound that made me remember, I could feel the wind as it rushed by me, and my hair would ever so often gently lift as the wind picked it up. It would have been a happy memory if I wasn't running toward a scream, Taylor's scream to be exact. I should have known it was hers the first time she screamed. I didn't really care though, Taylor was here, and if she was, then the others might be too. I am glad that I'm not going alone though, Josh and Sophie were also running with me, I didn't think Sophie would be the type of person to just follow someone who didn't explain what was happening, but I guess with the screaming, she had a pretty good idea why I was running so fast. Josh, on the other hand, wasn't so trusting.

"EMILY! SLOW DOWN!" he shouted. I just ignored him.

Questions and thoughts filled my head a ridiculous pace, I could only now think of Taylor, and what other thing was with her. I didn't stop to answer them though, they would probably come in time, I just needed to get to her. To be honest, that was all I ever thought when I heard Taylor scream, I needed to get to her as fast as possible because I knew there can only be a few reasons for why she was screaming. John and Sophie didn't say anything either, they just ran alongside me, fully trusting that I knew what I was doing. I hoped I did too.

I don't know how long it took, but we made it back to our scavenging entrance, the same path we always go through when we enter the town. The screaming was louder now, but it seemed to go deeper into the woods. I was already running to it, and Sophie was to, but suddenly I was pulled back. I turned around to see Josh holding my arm, keeping a firm grip on me.

"What are you doing!" I yelled.

"Emily! What the hell is going on! You haven't explained a thing yet!" Josh shouted right back.

I almost struggled to break free, but I held my ground, although it was tempting because I was hearing Taylor screaming behind me.

"It's Taylor, Josh, it's fucking Taylor, and she needs help! Let me go!" I yelled, but Josh's grip was tighter.

"You have no idea if that's really her, it could be a bandit luring us into a trap, or a survivor getting devoured by walkers, how the hell could it be one of your friends, who was last seen in Georgia by the way."

I was already angry at Josh for a couple of reasons, but that last comment put me over the edge, even though he went out of his way yesterday to assure me that they might come back, that we might be reunited. The thought of never seeing Fredrick, Nick, Shane, and even Rebecca again, upset me.

"YOU JUST HAVE TO TRUST ME ON THIS ONE!" I screamed.

I was surprised at how loud I shouted, at how much I cared for my old group, even though we hardly knew each other, but even though we got stuck in an apartment together for 2 – 3 days, I felt like I knew them my whole life. I knew who Fredrick was and I was inspired by him, Nick made me laugh and took me and Connor's side when they questioned us, Rebecca was just a young woman trying to forget her past and survive, and even Shane, who hasn't really talked to me, I felt like I knew him to. I think even Josh was surprised at my intense shouting because his loose lightened a bit.

"I am just saying Emily, it might not even be Taylor. We shouldn't get our hopes up for something that might not come true." Josh said, in a quieter voice now.

I was ready to slap him when Sophie gave her opinion.

"It might be worth it to check who it is anyway, even if it is not the Taylor you are speaking of. We can help them out." Sophie chimed in.

Josh stared at Sophie, I guess he was now considering it because even if it wasn't Taylor, it could still be someone alone and defenseless. I knew it was her though, there was no doubt in my mind that the scream belonged to her.

"Sophie, I appreciate your thought, but I have already taken in you, Emily, and Alice, and I don't really think me, and Lewis can afford- "

Sophie rolled her eyes at the mention of Lewis.

"I don't any mean disrespect Monsieur, but baiser Lewis," Sophie cut off, "he disrespects you, and others around him. I bet he hasn't worked a day in his life, I can see it in his eyes. He has constantly disobeyed you, and now you're caring about his feelings?"

Now Josh let go of me and turned to Sophie.

"Listen to me miss, I know my son is a stupid piece of shit, but no matter how fucked up he is, I love him, because he is my son, and he is my only fucking connection to the world before it went to shit. You know I would do anything to help you and Emily, but my son's survival comes first, no matter how whiny he may be."

I never really thought of that, on how Lewis, really is Josh's only connection to the world before walkers. Maybe that's why I miss Connor so much, maybe he was my connection before the world ended, but I know it's much more than that.

Before Sophie could reply, gunshots rang out. I heard multiple screams now, Taylor was one of them. It was coming from the woods, and I could even see flashes in the distance. It looked like it was very deep in the woods, possibly near our camp. I pray it isn't because then Alice and Lewis would have to deal with. The gunshots brought me back to reality, and I sprinted away from Sophie and John.

"EMILY!" Josh screamed.

I didn't look back, I just ran right into the trees, with Josh's screams behind me.

The woods had a very different feel to it than before. Instead of feeling alive and full of life, it felt dead. Maybe it was because of the lack of animals, or the number of bullet holes in the trees. The gunshots rang out far to the left, which means it wasn't near the camp. I sighed in relief, even though I bet Alice and Lewis could also hear gunshots. I ran away from the path that John set up to our camp and headed deeper into the wilderness.

Gunshots still rang out, I could hear more screaming, and this time something else, I could hear shouting as well. I don't know where the sounds were coming from now, it seemed to be all around me like it was bouncing off the trees and the gunfight was somewhere else. I looked around in confusion, there were bullet holes and even bullet casings everywhere, but no one else.

"THERE'S ONE OF THEM!"

Before I could process what that meant, bullets came flying in front of me. I didn't hesitate, I turned to run but then an intense pain suddenly emerged from my left shoulder, I could see blood spew out of it. I've been shot. I scream and try and scramble away, but I trip over something big. It makes me fall face first into the dirt. I hear more gunfire, this time in front of me instead of behind me. Whoever is shooting at me have turned their attention to the others.

"IF YOU MESS WITH US, THEN WE FUCK WITH YOU!"

It sounded like a grown man shouting that, and with the amount of gunfire I hear, I doubt he's the only one around. To be honest, I don't think I thought this plan through, I had no idea what I would meet if Taylor was here. I didn't think I would be in a battle, and yet here I was. I don't know if I was reacting properly to the situation as well, should I be screaming? Running? Or just generally do anything other than lay there.

Suddenly, I felt someone pulling on my arms. My left shoulder protest, screaming in pain from that bullet wound, but whoever was dragging me didn't stop until they pulled me behind one of the trees, away from the gunfire. I didn't open my eyes, but someone was shaking me.

"Emily! Wake up!"

It sounded like…Rebecca?

I opened my eyes, and I was correct. Rebecca was crouching down, shaking me awake.

"Jesus Emily, did you gain weight while I was gone!"

I didn't know how to respond, too many things were happening at once, so I just laid there while I looked at her. Rebecca wasn't wearing a black hoodie now, she was wearing a black tank top that had blood on it, like real blood. The tank top revealed a dragon tattoo on her right arm, that crawled down to her hand. She had a pistol in hand and she was staring at me, concerned.

"Rebecca? Is that you?" I say.

"Of course, it's me, would you forget this glorious face?" she replies.

I smile a bit, Rebecca sure knows how to get me in a good mood while there is a battle going on. I hear more gunshots now though, and I fear we might die, I don't even know what caused this. Rebecca ducks when a bullet whizzes by her head. She stands behind the tree and leans out to shoot.

"What the hell happened? What are you guys doing here?" I ask.

"Shoot now, ask questions later," Rebecca replies, "Oh, here take this gun, shoot those fuckers for me will ya?"

Rebecca passes me a gun, already loaded, and she keeps firing. I guess our little reunion will have to wait till this is over. I stand up, holding the gun in my right hand. Now I am a little nervous, I have never really shot a gun before, that was Connor's job. I always used my trusty hunting knife, but my friend was counting on me.

I take a deep breath and hold out my gun, I don't know where to aim, so I just shoot randomly. I hear my bullets leave the gun as I shoot, they whizz away. I don't think I hit anyone, and I ran out of bullets anyway by shooting like a maniac. My hand hurts from shooting, and now I know I will never use a gun again. I cover behind the tree while Rebecca shoots, she doesn't even notice I left my position until she goes back to cover.

"Did you run out of ammo, that fast?" she asked.

I smile shyly, "Maybe…"

Rebecca rolls her eyes.

"Just stay down, this will be over quick." She says.

I sit down behind the tree, breathing heavily. I try to calm myself down by thinking of John, Alice, and even Connor, but somehow even he vanishes from my mind as bullets go by me. Do these guys have unlimited ammo or something, it feels like they've been shooting forever. There screams, and shouts go on.

" _You're going to fucking pay!"_

" _We didn't do shit to you!"_

" _Get down!"_

" _NICK. WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!"_

 _Wait, Nick?_ I think. Is he here too? I look out from the tree, scanning the area. I don't see him, but Rebecca confirmed he was here, so I will believe he is. I return to my cover, trying to calm down when I see John and Sophie running towards me. I am so relieved they came to follow me. Sophie reaches me first, touching my left shoulder gently.

"What happened!?" Sophie shouts.

I hold my shoulder, it still hurts, but I think I will survive, "I got shot, don't worry about me!" I scream back.

Rebecca notices her but doesn't shoot because I am with them. Josh comes next, sprinting toward us, his shirt sticks to him because he is sweating so much, he must be tired, but he just looks at me.

"Are you ok?!" He shouts.

"Yeah, I am, don't worry about me, help her!" I say, pointing at Rebecca.

"What the hell am I supposed to do!"

"I don't know, fucking shoot them!" screams Rebecca.

Josh started to get his gun out, but then something violently jerked me back. I hit the ground and screamed because there was a walker on top of me. It was a man, he had a blue coat on, even though it was summer. He had a sniper rifle strapped to his back, and he looked fresh like he was recently bitten. I yelled at I struggled with it, thank god Sophie was there with her knife, she quickly stabbed it in the head and it dropped dead on top of me.

"WALKERS INCOMING!" Rebecca shouted.

She was right, emerging from the woods were exactly seventeen walkers. All of them probably attracted by the noise, hungry for flesh. The men over on the other side started to shoot at the walkers. This gave Rebecca a clean shot. I heard her shoot twice, and I heard two men scream out in pain. The men who were hiding earlier, now have run out into the clearing because even more walkers were coming from behind them. Then I heard a click, and Rebecca groans out of frustration.

"Shit! I'm out bullets!" Rebecca yelled.

"What do we do!" Sophie shouted.

Rebecca looked at the men who were shooting at the walkers, some of them threw their guns aside and got out there knifes. They seemed to be running out of ammo. Rebecca looked over at the other side, where she randomly nodded, I guess for a signal. I could tell she was up to something.

"Wait, Rebecca, what are you doing?" I ask.

"I'm going to crack some heads," Rebecca replied and then ran out.

"WAIT, REBECCA!" I shouted, but she was already in the clearing. I chased after her, ignoring Sophie and Josh's calls and got out my knife. It was probably a bad idea, considering I've already been shot and shouldn't be fighting, but I don't care. I don't know what she was planning to do, but I was going to be with her when she did it.

The men noticed me and Rebecca charging at them, some of them held their ground, while others, intimidated by the walkers and us, started to scramble away. Some of them with their guns out, got ready to fire, but Josh already started to shoot at them. Rebecca rammed into the first guy she saw and stabbed him in the heart. Another man came up behind her, but I quickly ran up and stabbed his head, he let out a short gasp and fell. Rebecca got the knife out and swiftly turned around and sliced a charging women's throat. The women held onto her throat with her hand and stumbled backward.

Josh kept shooting at the bandits with his gun. Their bodies provided the walkers with a distraction as they feasted on their flesh, however, other walkers kept walking toward us, moaning and groaning like a mindless beast. I didn't pay any attention to them, after all, there was only one more bandit to deal with. A man came charging at me with his knife, but I dodged it stabbed a man in the back. This time though, he fought back. He turned around a stabbed me in the leg. The pain was just as bad as when I got shot, and I fell to the ground, screaming as the man towered over me. The man stood up and prepared to slam the knife into my chest when I heard something rustling behind him.

Nick, who seemed to come out of nowhere, ran up behind the man and stabbed the man in the head with his katana. Blood sprayed on my face as Nick pulled out his sword, and the man slumps to the ground.

"Hey there Emily, lovely weather, right?" Nick asked.

He offered his hand, and I grab it as he helps me up. I wince as he pulls me to my feet, it must be because of my wounds, so I just put my right hand to cover up my left shoulder wound, right now I didn't want to focus on my injuries, I want to talk to Nick. Nick hadn't really changed his outfit since he escaped the city, the only thing that was different was the color of his leather jacket, which was now dark green.

"Yes, it is. It's good to see you, Nick." I replied

He smiled, and I smiled back, it really was good to see another familiar face again, we both embraced for a bit before we pulled away. After that, me and Nick watched as Rebecca stomped on the last walker's head. Bodies, littered the forest floor, bandits, and walkers alike. Rebecca, satisfied with a job well done, walked over to us, smirking.

"Enjoying your reunion?"

I smiled and went to hug Rebecca, and she accepted it. I was so happy Nick and Rebecca were okay, and there was so much I wanted to talk about, but I just stood there hugging her. After a hot second, she pulled out.

"Who were those guys?" I ask.

"They were a bunch of shitheads," she replies, "but, in reality, I have no idea. We didn't do anything to them, and they came out of nowhere like they've been trying to hunt us down their whole lives, fucking unbelievable."

"Well, it's over, now right?"

"Right, it is, now if you excuse me, I have to sound the alarm," then Rebecca turned toward the woods, "Guys! It's okay to come out now!" Rebecca shouted.

The first one to come out of there hiding spot was Sophie and Josh. Josh held the gun, breathing heavily as he held his gun tightly. Sophie looked at all the bodies, clearly shocked at how many there were, unlike all of us, she didn't have a drop of blood on her.

"You okay?" Josh asked me as he came over.

"Yes, thank you," I say.

Josh smiled and turned to talk to Sophie.

Then I hear leaves rustling behind me, I turn around sharply, my eyes widening, are there more bandits? No, it turned out to be… Shane!

Shane comes out from behind a tree, holding his trusty ax handle. He still has the business suit on as well, covered in blood. As he looks around at the bodies, he sees me, and his eyes widen.

"Emily?" Shane says.

"Hey Shane, long time no see."

Shane comes up, hesitantly, his eyes open wide like if he blinks I might vanish or something. Then surprisingly, he hugs me, I almost gasp and pull away, but it feels good to be in his embrace, and I don't want to be rude to Shane, he was the first other person I met before the others.

"I thought you died, and we were so worried, but you're here," I say, smiling

"I'm right here Emily I'm so glad to see you again."

I don't realize I'm crying until Shane wipes away some of my tears. Embarrassed a bit, I pull out. I realize that's a little rude, but Shane doesn't mind, and he pulls away too. Now that I know Nick, Shane, and Rebecca were alive, I was excited to see Taylor and Fredrick.

"Hey, where are Taylor and Fredrick?"

Suddenly, a grim face replaces the happy ones from before, and Rebecca and Nick look at each other. I don't understand why they're suddenly so sad, but my stomach clenches at the thought of what they're going to tell me.

"Taylor is here, but, she is a bit more depressed than usual," Rebecca says.

"What? Why?" I ask.

Rebecca and Nick look at each other, debating in their minds if they should tell me. I guess they decided on "Yes" because Nick puts his hand on my shoulder and sighs.

"During the escape, in the city three months ago, she lost Fredrick and Alice in the horde. She has no idea if they're alive or not, so that's one thing." Nick replies.

My heart breaks when he talks about Fredrick, he's not with them? It almost ruins my mood, and I feel sad I won't get to meet him, but at least Taylor will reunite with Alice soon, and then Alice will be happy, but then I remember that Nick says, "that's one thing".

"What else?"

"A lot happened while we were apart. We met another survivor two months ago, his name was Chuck, and he was just like Dave to her. They spent a lot of time together, and Chuck made her really happy, the fool even gave her jewelry, but a few days ago, he got bit, and we had to put him down."

I don't know who Chuck was, but it sounded like Taylor liked him a lot. I was sad to know that I wouldn't see Fredrick, but at least I could have the slight possibility that he is alive, just like Connor. I wonder how this has affected Taylor.

Just as I have that thought, Taylor comes out, along with a huge man, taller than Shane even. Taylor now wears a white sleeveless shirt, with a bandage on her arm, and long black pants. She looks tired, and her cheeks are wet with tears. I know it probably isn't the best time, but I try to talk to her anyway.

"Hello Taylor, how are you?"

She doesn't respond, so I take it as a sign to stop talking to her. The man next to her doesn't talk either, but he stares at me. He has a very muscular build, with greying dark brown hair and a thick greying dark brown beard, he is white and tall too, taller than Shane, which scares me. He wears a Blackwork jacket with what looks like a Tony Romo t-shirt underneath. He has faded jeans on and steel toe boots.

"Nice to meet you miss, my name is Richard." He says as he shakes my hand. He must bend down to do so.

"Nice to meet you, Richard." I shake his hand, he has a firm grip. I guess it will be nice to know more about him. It's funny how Connor wouldn't even allow Shane, and now here I was with a whole new group of people surrounding me, if only Connor was here to see it.

Suddenly, I feel tired, light headed even. I blink a few times, but black spots edge at my vision.

"We met Richard one month ago in a small town. He's pretty nice, so don't let his size fool you," Nick said, "even if he looks like a small car."

Nick laughs, and even Rebecca smirks a little, I attempt to, but for some reason, I feel my vision fading.

"Em," Josh says, are you alright?"

Everyone is staring at me now, all of them have worried looks on their expressions. I struggle to pronounce the word "yes", so I try to nod. As I lean my head back to do the nod, I fall over.

"Emily!" Sophie shouts.

Everyone has crowded around me, clearly confused by what has happened and trying to help. I feel sticky and bad inside, almost like I lost too much…

It's the blood, I lost way too much blood, and now I'm about to lose consciousness. I try and keep my eyes open, but they feel like heavy blankets, I can't keep them open for much longer. Everyone is kneeling next to me, seeing the blood.

"Holy shit! She's losing blood!" Rebecca yelled.

"Get her to our camp, it's this way!" Josh shouted.

Josh takes out one of his jackets and wraps n around my arms wound, it hurts, but I stay still and let them fix me. I try to stay awake, but my eyes are too heavy and tired, I have to fall asleep now, so I close my eyes. The last thing I see before my eyes shut is Richard picking me up.

 **I hoped you guys enjoyed this! Again, sorry for the delay, but I hoped you liked this chapter. It has its problems, no matter how many times I re-read it, I always find a spelling mistake afterward, I feel that I rushed it a bit. But if you guys saw my other "attempts" then you would unfollow the story.**

 **We got the crew back! I am so excited to write about them again. And, thank you** **S** **uperpenguins8771** **I hoped you guys are curious about Richard, I can't wait to write him!**

 **The next chapter shouldn't be long since I am going to be doing something special for that. I won't spoil anything, but, let's just say Emily will have her first-day dream.**

 **Take Care**

 **CandleFire45**


	14. Episode 2 - Part 5 - June 28th, 2015

_**Emily Cardin – 15 Years Old**_

 _Everything is pitch black at first, I can't see anything at all, no matter where I look. Am I dead? That doesn't make sense because I feel like I'm walking, I can feel my hands touching someone else's, their hands feel strong and rough. I start to panic, maybe I am really dead. Then, something else happens. At first, I hear shouting, I don't know who it belongs to. It doesn't sound like Rebecca, or Nick. Not Shane, Taylor, or Richard. I think I hear Alice yelling something, but her voice is way to high pitched for it to be her. My breathing is fast, my chest rises and falls quickly instead of slowly. I'm not having trouble breathing, but I don't know why I'm breathing this fast, maybe it's because it's so dark around me._

" _Okay, you can open your eyes now." A voice tells me._

 _The voice sounds familiar, I have heard it before, but not from my group, from someone else, somewhere else. My chest tightens with pain, but I can still hear his voice. It makes me want to laugh and cry at the same time. I have to listen harder to make sure it's real._

" _You still have the blindfold on me," I reply, "Dad, what's going on?"_

 _So, it is my dad, it makes me want to scream with joy, but the other voice, is that me? I can hear myself, and I can feel my mouth move and say the words, but it doesn't sound like me. It's_ too _high, like the younger version of me. Maybe when you die, you go to heaven as your younger self?_

" _Whoops, sorry about that," he says, chuckling to himself, "let me get that off for you."_

 _Something touches the back of my head briefly, I can hear him untying the blindfold. While he does this, the voices I was hearing earlier have disappeared, I don't hear a single sound. My dad takes off the blindfold and then suddenly, light burst into my eyes._

 _The first thing I see is the sign, it's painted in cursive, saying "_ _HAPPY 15_ _TH_ _BIRTHDAY EMILY!",_ _it's painted with sparkles around it, and stars made out of stickers, and streamers that go on the side. So much color in one place, it almost hurts my eyes since the world I know is filled with grey. All around me our decorations, there are balloons, and confetti, and even a piñata waiting for me out there tied to an old tree, but then I see the people, and my heart stops._

" _SURPRISE!"_

 _I stare at the scene, looking in disbelief. All the people I see before me are not my group, but my friends and family. My old friend Beth is standing in the front of the crowd, holding a present in her hand, with her dog Wesley right in front of her, barking and sniffing around. My cousins are running around with sparklers, laughing as they do tricks with them. My aunt Linda and uncle Greg are here to, and they usually skip my birthday parties. Then I see my mom, she's wearing a blue tunic with a pearl necklace around her neck. She smiles at me, and it makes my heart break open, it makes tears well up in my eyes._

" _Guys! Oh my gosh! This is… I can't even form words!" I say._

" _I'm glad you like it, Emily, we worked hard to make it will be the best birthday you've ever had." My dad says._

 _I can feel tears going down my cheeks, but their tears of joy, to see everyone here, happy, and alive. I hug my dad, crying into his shirt._

" _Thank you! Thank you, guys! I can't believe you came!" I remember saying._

" _I didn't want to come, but my mom forced me to anyway." My cousin Zack said._

 _Aunt Rachel looks at Zack sternly, which makes everyone around me laugh. As we do, I feel something creep into my chest, something I haven't felt in a long time. Happiness. It's been so long since I've seen my family, and here they are in front of me._

" _Happy Birthday, Emily." My mother says._

 _I run up to my mom and hug her, and she smiles. I cry, it's honestly a wonderful feeling to cry now, and this time I'm not crying for Fredrick's disappearance, or Connor missing, or me getting shot. I'm crying because I got to see my family again one last time._

"Emily _!"_

 _A new voice interrupts everything. Shocked, I look up at my mom, only to see her still hugging me. It doesn't sound like someone I know from the party, but someone from, now._

"Bandages, we need bandages!"

 _I don't know if that's Nick's voice or Rebecca's voice, but whoever is talking sounds like they're shouting instead. I feel something in my mind drift and everything goes black again, my mother vanishes from my arms._

 _..._

 _I'm in the darkness for a while, I don't know for how long, but it feels like an eternity of waiting for me. I don't know how it happens, but I somehow wake up again. I'm laying on my back, looking up into the bright blue sky, with a coke in my right hand. Down here in the south, I'm surprised it's not warmer, but I guess you would describe today as a perfect summer day, it's warm outside, with a gentle breeze of cool air blowing across my face, the sun is shining, but it doesn't hurt to stand out of the shade, and the sky is, Azure, like my mother would say._

 _Me and Beth are side by side, looking at the sky together. Neither of us say anything to each other, like if we say a word, it might ruin the perfect moment, so we just lie there in silence. Everyone else is either on the patio or in the pool. I can hear my cousins and friends splashing around in there, while the adults mingle, so we have the whole backyard to ourselves._

 _I try to remember the voices in my head from earlier, but I don't seem to hear them now. Maybe they were part of my imagination and they never existed, or maybe they were just my thoughts. I don't tell any of this to Beth, which I don't think I can anyway, she would think I'm crazy. Besides, she is long gone by now, probably at another state surviving in the zombie world._

 _Beth right now wears a white cowboy hat, with a white tank top and brown jeans, to finish it off, she has a pair of brown cowboy boots. I remember when Beth started her cowboy faze, she would watch countless wild west movies with sheriffs and bandits duking it out in a bar, she would use an old rope she found in the shed and try to lasso with it, and she would always pretend her dog Wesley was her sidekick and they would go on adventure's together._

 _Right now, Beth wasn't doing any of those things, she was just laying right next to me, silently watching the clouds roll by._

" _It's amazing that your turning fifteen today," Beth says quietly, "now were officially the same age!"_

 _I chuckled when she said that, it made me feel good about my birthday._

" _Yeah, I'm fifteen, but I still feel like a child." I say awkwardly. Beth laughs as she sits up to look at me._

" _Emily, have you seen me lately? I am fifteen and I still watch "The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly"."_

 _Me and Beth laugh, remembering the old movie. I used to watch it all the time with my dad, but I kind of stopped when I turned fourteen._

" _And look at you Emily, you're still saving up for a new car, and you're not even in high school yet!"_

" _I will be soon," I correct, "After this summer, you're looking at an official Mulberry student."_

" _Cool, so you'll be in my school!" Beth exclaims, "Maybe you can give me some tips on how to be a real adult."_

" _Come on Beth, I don't even want to be a real adult you know? There too boring to talk to. Besides, when I grow up, I'm going to be a super awesome adult. I'll play video games and play pranks!"_

 _We both laugh at the comment I made, which makes me happy since it's usually Beth who makes me laugh._

" _When I'm an adult, I'm going to Texas, so I can become a real cowgirl!"_

 _We laugh._

" _Okay, maybe not for real, but when I grow up, I'm going to save up a ton of money and travel the world!"_

 _I look at Beth in awe, who always seemed so adventures and bold, she never backed down from a challenge anyone made, and hearing her talk about exploring the world makes me believe that more._

" _I would get to go to Ireland, and Egypt," she says standing up, hopping around on one foot for each place she names, "I would love to go explore Japan too, and Rio!"_

" _How about New York," I say happily, "or Paris!"_

" _Of course! I'm already practicing my French."_

 _We both giggle. Trying to imagine Beth with a French accent would be funny._

" _Man, to go to all those places Beth, you're going to have to work to get the money."_

" _I know, but I've been saving." She smiles evilly when she says that._

" _No! Really!"_

" _That's right. Your friend Beth, has been saving for adventure since she was 6!"_

" _Wow, how much?" I ask._

" _Enough for me to get a plane ticket out of state, but not enough to travel the world yet. If only I could find a way to get more money."_

" _Don't worry Beth, maybe I can help you, give you my savings. Then we could travel the world together."_

 _I remember the worried look on Beth's face when I said that, the way she stopped bouncing around and just kind of sat down. Wesley came running over to her, laying right on her lap while Beth scratches his head._

" _No Emily, you shouldn't do that, I'm ok with what I have now."_

" _Are you sure? I could totally- "_

" _No, it's fine, really. I don't want you to spend anything on me. It was a sweet offer though."_

 _I feel the energy and fun of the conversation drain out of me as Beth starts to play with Wesley, grabbing a green rubber ball and throwing it across the yard. Wesley chases after it, catching the ball before it hits the ground. I feel like I did something wrong, like I shouldn't have offered Beth my money. Actually, that is exactly what I shouldn't have done._

 _I don't know how to exactly say sorry without making her feel bad, after all it's my fault that were just sitting here awkwardly, with Wesley occasionally coming back with the green ball. I don't know how to form the words, so I just sit back down with her, watching Wesley silently._

"I think you need to put pressure on wound, right?"

 _There were those voices again, only this time I could hear it clearer, and I think I could make it out to be a man's voice. Is that Josh?_

"Just hurry the fuck up and do it! She'll die of blood loss if we don't do anything!"

 _Then, a sharp pain erupted from my shoulder and leg, and I black out, with Beth disappearing into nothing._

 _..._

" _Sweetie, are you tired already?" I hear my mom say._

 _I wake up with a start, feeling my head shoot up. I feel wet, and I look down to see I have my bathing suit on. I could see my mother right next to me, rubbing my back as she stares at me. My father is sitting down at the table I'm at as well. He's rubbing my back to. I rub my eyes, trying to see if I'm dreaming, but there both there._

" _I'm fine, just tired all of a sudden." I say, yawning._

" _You must have been worn out after swimming in the pool with the rest of your family." My father exclaims._

 _So that's why I was wet._

" _Yeah, that must have been it."_

 _After waking up my brain, I look around at the scene. Everyone is still here, even aunt Rachel and my cousin Zack. Everyone is chatting, but it seems like the energy has went down, like the life out of everyone's souls have been sucked away._

" _It looks like everyone is tried now as well."_

" _Oh, you have no idea, Becca, Riley, and Daniel are all sleeping on the lounge chairs with there food."_

 _Mom chuckles, smiling at my dad, who smiles back. They stop rubbing my back and take a seat beside me, watching the family run around. We just sit in silence, watching the party go on._

" _Emily, are you excited for high school?" My mother asks, "We know school isn't exactly your favorite subject, but we would love to know."_

 _The question was kind of out of the blue, I haven't really thought about high school, even though I've been saving for college and a new car. It hasn't really crossed my mind, I always thought I would still be the same Emily from three years ago, playing with my childhood friends, petting dogs, and having sleep overs. It really makes me think about my past, and my future._

" _I'm excited." I say happily._

 _My dad and mom smile, both of them looking at each other happily._

" _I'm sure you are honey."_

 _Dad touches my shoulder with his hand and gently squeezes it. He has tears in his eyes as he looks at me, smiling. Tears of joy like me when I saw my party._

" _Your growing up so fast sweetie," My mother says, "I'm so happy for your future."_

" _Thank you, mom, thank you dad."_

 _They both hug me, trapping me in their embrace, keeping me warm and fuzzy. Back then, I used to shake there hugs off when I went to school, but I don't let go, I don't struggle, I accept it. We all sit there, hugging each other, with nothing stopping us. The hug grows tighter, and I struggle to breathe, but I don't let go, I go deeper into their embrace._

"Guys! Wake up, she's not breathing!

 _I don't even pay attention to the voices anymore, they ruin the moment, so I ignore them. We are stuck in an embrace for a long time before my mother and father let me go, both of them smiling at me, silently crying. Tears start to well in my eyes to, and I let them fall._

"Emily! Stay with me! C'mon, stay with me!"

 _My eyes start to get heavy, but I don't question it now, I just let them fall, like the tears on my face._

 _..._

 _This time, I don't come to until a long time later. It feels like forever floating in the darkness after witnessing all of the color and light in my dream. It makes me restless, waiting for the next part. It's like watching your favorite T.V show and then the season ends, you want to know what happens next._

 _When my eyes start to open, I shake my head to wake up faster, forcing myself to open my eyes. When I finally start to see my surroundings, this is what I see._

 _A birthday cake lies in front of me, with its fifteen candles lit up, lightening up my face. I can feel the wind gently breezing along my body, making the fire move slightly. Everyone is around me, no one has left the party, and Beth sits in front of me with my dad's old polarized camera on her lap._

 _My mother and father are behind me, looking at me, as I stare at the cake. My mom sits down on a stool while my dad stands, leaning over to look at my face._

" _What do you think honey?" My father says._

 _I look at the cake, my cake, waiting for me to blow out it's candles. I study it, looking at the red icing on top, saying "Happy Birthday Emily!", all in cursive. It's a small cake, but big enough to feed everyone. It's so simple and plain, that it makes me cry with joy. They didn't need to buy a huge cake to show that they loved me, something small and beautiful did just the trick._

" _I love it." Is all I can say._

 _We're all silent, just taking in the perfect day as long as possible. With the sunsetting in front of me, with all of its golden and orange colors, mixing together, it makes me feel bold and confident, it makes me feel strong._

" _Tell me when to take the picture" Beth says as she positions herself._

 _I watch Beth as she points the camera toward me, holding her finger just above the button that will capture this moment forever. I look right back down at my cake, watching as the fire flickers on the candles. Looking at the candles, it makes me want one more thing._

" _Wait! Hold on, I want to make one wish." I say._

 _Everyone, besides Beth and my parents, groan, which makes me kind of sad, but I need to do this._

" _Don't worry, it will be a quick second." I whisper._

 _I lean my face near the cake, not to close so I get burned by the fire, but close enough for it to shine in my whole face. The sun lowers in the horizon, only a sliver of it left before it vanishes into the night. I close my eyes, focus on the cake, and I make my wish._

 _I wish that no matter what happens, everything will be okay. That every day will be a perfect day like this one. That no matter the cost, will all be okay._

" _Now…"_

 _*FLASH*_

 _Then the whole world went dark._

 **Wow, I loved this chapter, it's probably one of my favorites, so I hope you guys enjoy it to! It may be a little short but I'm okay with that. Tell me what you thought of it! There is nothing I can really say here except, take care. (To be honest, I had this done for three days, but I was to lazy to publish it, sorry, lol)**

 **Take Care**

 **CandleFire45**


	15. Episode 2 - Part 6 - Screaming

**Sorry for the delay, but I know at this point you guys don't mind the delays since I still update. My birthday happened recently, and I had a crazy week of school, but now things are calming down, so I should be able to write more. I don't have much else to say in these author's notes anymore, except for those who don't know, I updated my blog, but not a lot of people have read it, so, I need your guy's character quotes, for something that's going to happen in the future. Please send it to me via PM, thanks. Also, quick note, if this chapter seems all over the place, then that because I had to restart this chapter 8 times, that's right! 8 TIMES! I couldn't believe how hard it was to write. I have no doubt this chapter has flaws, but I'm just happy to get it done, so I hope you guys enjoy it.**

 **Emily Cardin – 18 Years Old**

Everything is blurry, and I hear ringing in my ears. No matter where I look, I only see white. I also feel pain, I feel it everywhere, in my head, in my chest, down at my legs, everything hurts. My heart starts to beat faster, I can practically feel it pumping out of my chest. I start to sweat, panic takes over me, and I start screaming, or I think I'm screaming, I can't really hear anything over the ringing in my ears.

I hear voices, someone is shouting, it's a woman's voice. I can't see their faces, but I feel someone's hands pinning my arms down now. This was not how I was expecting to wake up, I don't know what I expected, but not this, not pain and someone forcing me down. I start to kick and scream, everything hurts so much. I force my eyes to open wider and see blurry images of people.

"Hold, on Emily," someone says, "It will only hurt for a second."

It sounds like Nick, but I don't care. I scream louder, and now I can actually hear myself. It sounds distorted, but I somehow know it's my scream, because my throat feels like it's on fire. How did a gunshot wound, and a stab wound cause this?

"Can somebody fucking hold her down!" that sounds like Rebecca.

I scream so loud that I'm pretty sure that I almost lost my voice, until I feel a sharp pain go through my neck, and everything goes black again.

…

When I wake up again, all the pain I felt earlier has vanished. I cautiously look around, expecting to see someone rush over to me and pin me down again, but nothing happens. I wonder what happened while I was out and where I am right now, but no one is up, and it's kind of hard to see. I can move my arms, but my shoulder stings just a little bit. I ignore the stinging and I hover my arms over my face. I can see them more clearly now, and I am surprised that they are clean. My light red fingernails are clean as well, I can't remember the last time they were.

My head is resting on a white fluffy pillow, and I think I'm lying on a white cot. I look to my right to see a small end table with medical supplies on it. The med kit is open, its contents spilled out like someone was rushing to find the right tools. Three empty water bottles lie right beside the med kit, along with bloody bandages. Seeing the bandages make me look over to my shoulder, which has been wrapped around with fresh new ones.

I think I'm in Josh's tent, I know this because the room I'm in is huge, nothing like the other tent I've been sleeping in. A bit away from me is an open tent door, with the zipper down. I lift my head to get a better look at what's on the other side. It hurts to move, but I manage to ignore it and peer into the other room.

In the living room area of the tent is Nick, Shane, and Richard, all of them sleeping with pillows. I don't think Josh had enough sleeping bags for them. I can also see Josh's mini fridge, but it's off. The generator has been turned off outside, I know because it doesn't make any noise. There's nothing else over there except their weapons. I try to get up, but my legs hurt so much that I have to lie them back down.

I rest my head again, trying to ignore the stinging in my shoulder as I think this through. No one's up right now, and I shouldn't really be surprised after all that's happened, but after passing out, more than once, I want to know what's happened while I was out. All I know is that I got shot and stabbed and it took me a little while before I realized I was still losing blood.

Just laying here on the cot is making me restless, I want to know what happened, but no one's up, so I'm stuck here, and now that I know I can't get up out of the cot because my legs are in pain makes me panic. I consider screaming to get everyone's attention, but I feel like that's too cruel after all they've done, and I don't know if I should call out to them because there sleeping. So, I just stare up at the ceiling of the tent, remembering the time when Sophie and I talked about our families. I can remember seeing the puddles forming on top as we all laughed at Alice's jokes while the rain fell around us. I try to picture the scene in my head, but my head starts to hurt so I stop.

Nothing happens for a long time as I lie there. I try to fall asleep, but I somehow find my eyes open again, searching for anything that might interest me. My shoulder stops stinging after a while, which makes me annoyed rather than glad, at least then I could blame my shoulder for waking me. I wonder why they didn't give me any painkillers, or something that stops the pain a little bit.

I think it's an hour later when I start to hear someone yawn. I shoot my head up so fast that the pain almost makes me black out, but thankfully, I don't. My eyes adjust to the darkness and I see Richard moving around on the floor, and it looks like he's the one yawning. I start to freak out and try calling to him, but he soon stops moving and I hear him snore.

I grunt in frustration and lay my head down again. I should have just yelled at him. It's making me madder that I can't find out what's going on, I could try and get up out of my cot and move around, but my legs hurt so much when I move them that I have to lie them down to stop the pain. I remember when we were stuck in the apartment during the horde when we played the "game", Rebecca said she was scared of pain. I'm glad it was me instead of Rebecca because she would probably be screaming and crying like a baby.

After another hour, my eyes start to get heavy. I don't try and make them stay open, I close them quickly, and soon, a thread I never knew existed, pulls me into a deep sleep. 

…

 _I feel pain…_

" _NO! CONNOR!"_

 _My throat burns, everything hurts and burns at the same time, it all hurts. One second Connor was with me, and the next he was gone. He's fucking gone._

" _CONNOR!"_

 _I hear his screams, he's screaming, I'm screaming… I'm screaming._

 _I start to bang on the manhole cover, but it's too heavy, and the horde is on top of it, probably tearing Connor apart._

 _So many things rush through my head at once, Connor, Shane, Rebecca, Nick, Taylor, and Fredrick. I can't stop thinking about it, why did they scream, why did she scream? We would have been fine._

 _I stare at the cover, hearing the moans, and gunshots. I don't know who brought a gun with them, who brought a gun again? Connor, he had one, he had one…_

 _I think I'm slowly going insane, something is just eating my mind away, I don't know what, but I know I have to get out of here. If Connor truly sacrificed himself, then he would have wanted me and Alice to escape, not for me to be sulking about his death, if he died._

 _I stare one last time at the cover, still cursing to myself for being an asshole to him, before climbing down the latter that brings me down into the sewers. Alice still stands there, with tears in her eyes and blood all over her face and dress. I stare at her, and she stares back, she's shivering, her eyes look terrified. I curse myself for not thinking about Alice. How long has she been down here, listening to my screams? I should have taken her hand and ran with her out of the city, but she's still here, like me._

 _I kneel down and touch her shoulders, the blood is warm on her dress. She stopped shivering, but she's still crying. With my thumb, I wipe away her tears, I can't stand to see them on her face, it makes me want to cry, it makes me feel weak. We don't say anything, maybe we're trying to process our thoughts on what happened, I don't even know what to start on._

 _I think it's clear that Shane and Rebecca made it out alive, they were the closest to the sewers then any of us, and Shane with his strength could overpower any zombie. Nick, I'm not so sure, but he was so quick, and he has all those weapons… I think he made it out as well. My real concern is for Taylor and Fredrick, did they survive? For the first time in my life, when I usually try to be optimistic, I don't think so._

 _Alice stares at me for a while, before she uses her hands to wipe away something on my face. I think she's trying to wipe away my blood, but then I feel it. Tears have been running down my face and I didn't even know it. It makes me feel weak, I'm supposed to be strong for Alice, but here she is wiping away my tears._

 _After she's done, she pulls me into a hug. I don't let go, in fact, I hug her tighter. I just need someone to hold onto after all of this. All of this…_

" _I love you…", Those were the last words he said to me. At least I think so. I don't know if Connor is dead or alive, but I know he saved my life…_

" _I killed them."_

 _Alice starts to sob, she's really crying now. It makes my heart break to hear her sobbing. She thinks it's her fault. Her fault. I pull her away, she has her hands covering her face, trying to hide her tears._

" _No, you didn't- "_

" _BUT I DID!"_

 _She screams at me and uncovers her face. Her eyes are puffy, and her face is filled with tears. It's washing the blood away. Her face is contorted in anger, but when she sees me, she starts to sob again._

" _I killed them!" she says, "I was so scared, I didn't want to go, but they forced me! And when a monster came near me, and… I couldn't help it… I was scared."_

 _Alice almost falls, I think from shock, but I catch her. She needs more support than ever._

" _Alice, I understand. I was scared to. We all were."_

" _NO! You weren't scared. You were brave, and you guys knew what to do. I messed up! I KILLED THEM!"_

 _Alice can't stop crying, and I don't think she ever will. I don't know what to do, I never knew. I just followed Connor's plan. Now he's gone, and Alice and I are alone, she's just like me, her mothers gone. Gone… she doesn't know what to do._

" _When that monster came near me. I couldn't- hold it in. Its face was gone, it was gone!" Alice cried, "Then, I screamed, and mommy was taken from me. I ruined everything!"_

 _I stop cold when she says she ruined everything, she didn't ruin anything, it was me that did. I ruined my relationship with Connor during the game. That fucking game._

" _Alice…"_

 _She doesn't respond at first, she's still looking down, holding onto me, but then she looks up._

" _what?"_

" _You didn't ruin anything. You didn't know what was going to happen when we got down there."_

" _No, I knew, we all did…"_

 _Alice is no longer sobbing, but she has tears running down her face. I look at her, really look at her, and something strikes me. It was like the time I was on the balcony with Rebecca, I didn't see her as a rude, drunk teen, I saw her as a powerful leader, and the same thing happened with Alice._

" _Do you want to know what I know?"_

" _No, not really."_

 _I almost unintentionally laugh at the comment, but I contain my composure._

" _I know, that you saved my life from those monsters! I was about to get bit and what did you do?"_

 _Alice doesn't answer._

" _You took my knife and stabbed it in the head. I would be dead if it wasn't for you!"_

 _I think I'm getting through to her because she has finally stopped crying._

" _I might have saved you, but I killed them. I…"_

 _We both stand in silence once again. Not knowing what to say to each other anymore. I want to help, I do, but a part of me doesn't know how. I don't know how. My brain is still confused, I don't even know how I should react to all of this. I don't even know._

 _I am about to say something when I hear moaning coming from the end of the tunnel. We both stop instantly, frozen in fear of what will find. I quickly turn around and bring out my combat knife, readying myself for a fight. This would be the perfect time to let off some anger of what happened, of what's been happening._

" _Alice, stay behind me," I say. She nods silently._

 _The first zombie that appears is huge, it's bloated and green, and it's screaming, actually screaming. Its jaw is torn off, but its upper teeth are sharp, and they look like they can cut deep into my flesh. I'm so shocked that I don't even notice the crowd of zombies behind him. They cover the entire section of the tunnel, all of them are bloated and green, kind of mutated. I heard of zombies like these existing in Japan because of the disasters that took place at the start of the apocalypse. I didn't know zombies like these existed here in America as well._

 _One of them lunges for me, but Alice takes a brick I didn't know she had and bashes it into its head. The monster falls limp and its blood oozes out of its head. The blood is bright green instead of red. The nature of so many zombies forces me to retreat instead of fight. I grab Alice and we both run the opposite direction. We don't look back; the screams remind me too much of Connor. He's screaming._

 _I'm screaming._

…

 _The sun is out, the storm clouds are gone, and the grass is swaying in the wind. We walk away from the city, alone, with no one else. I can't believe that a few days ago me, Connor, and Shane arrived here, looking for supplies. Now, I'm the only one coming out, with a girl holding my hand. I don't know what happened to Connor, or Nick, or everybody else, but I know I escaped. I escaped…_

 _There are trees that loom in the distance, inviting us into the woods. I grip onto Alice's hand tighter, worried that if I let go, I'll somehow lose her as well. I don't want to be alone, but all of my friend's fates remain a mystery. Rebecca and Shane either escaped or stayed behind to look for us. Nick either died in the horde or found a way to make it out alive. Taylor and Fredrick, I have no doubt that their dead, which upsets me, it makes me angry at myself._

 _And Connor…_

 _Connor either sacrificed himself to save us, or he escaped, not knowing if we died or lived._

 _The blood on my face smells, my clothes are torn and dirty, I'm stuck with a little girl whose mother may be dead, but I'm still alive._

 _Were still alive._

…

I hear the sound of chirping birds, and people talking in the distance. Even though my eyes are closed, I can tell its daytime by how different I feel, like I have more energy inside me. I open my eyes, but no one is in the tent with me. I almost scream in frustration, but I stop myself. How could no one be keeping a lookout on me in case I wake up? I bet even Sophie would want to keep an eye on me, but yet, no one is here.

I feel like I should call out for someone, after all, there really is no point in staying silent now. So, I open my mouth, and then Josh and Lewis walk in.

I almost cheer when they come, but then Lewis starts shouting.

"I'm telling you dad, we need to get rid of them! We both know your supplies wasn't meant for a huge group of people!"

I don't know who he's talking about at first until my brain snaps me back into reality. Their talking about my group, and weather or not they should kick us out. I close my eyes and pretend to be asleep, but I peek a bit to see what they look like.

Lewis is wearing a white tank top and has blue jeans on. His hair is messy, and it looks like he's been awake all night. He holds a bow in his right hand and looks pissed off. Josh is also wearing a white tank top as well, which reveals multiple tattoo on his arms, he wears long blue pants and he is carrying water. They both look angry, and it looks like there having another fight. I don't know what Lewis's problem is with everyone he meets, and I don't know why he fights with his dad about it, especially since Josh towers over Lewis.

"Lewis, I'm not just going to go out there and force them all to leave. They have a child and mother with them!"

"I'm a child too! Somehow that dumb bitch and her girl are more important than me!"

"No, of course your important, but you're not a child anymore! You're supposed to be a grown man, so act like it!"

"I am acting like one! You think I'm not capable of making smart decisions, but you're the one who's in need of some educating "

Josh takes a step forward. I think I start to sweat.

"Lewis!" he warns.

"That tough guy shit isn't working on me anymore dad! You have no idea what's coming if you keep on acting all nice to these people! That fucking French student almost stole from us, and you decided to let her join us!"

"LEWIS THAT'S ENOUGH! LISTEN TO ME!"

Josh's voice is so loud that it rattles my bones, but surprisingly, it only makes Lewis madder. I don't know why they came in here to fight in front of me, in fact, I'm surprised they aren't suspicious that I haven't woken up yet if I was asleep.

"NO DAD! YOU'RE THE ONE WHO NEEDS TO FUCKING LISTEN! ALTHOUGH I GUESS YOU NEVER HAD, IF YOU DID, THEN MY MOM WOULD STILL BE ALIVE!"

Then that's when Josh slaps him, right in the face. I start screaming.

 **Hello Everyone! I hoped you liked the chapter, even though I don't very much. I had a lot of trouble with this one, but I have a pretty clear idea of what will happen in the next chapter, so don't worry. Also, thank you guys so much for the reviews at the last chapter, it made me so happy everyone loved that one, especially since I spent so long working on it, so thanks, guys! Now, as you guys could tell from my blog, I need your characters quotes. The people who sent them, please PM me on what your character would say, it could be serious, funny, inspirational, I don't care, just please do it. I need them for something I will be doing in the future. Okay, that was all, thank you guys so much!**

 **Take Care**

 **CandleFire45**

 **P.S: I'm putting up a poll later on something I have been struggling with doing. I have made a story called the Cloverfield Document, and I am having some trouble with it. Shocker. When the poll comes up, please vote on what you think would be cooler in the story.**

 **1rst Person**

 **3** **rd** **Person Limited**

 **3** **rd** **Person God**


	16. Episode 2 - Part 6 (Also) - The Leader

**This is just a quick chapter I'm posting so you guys can speculate and read while I'm working on the next chapter. Hope you in enjoy! Also, I guess you guys will find out that this chapter is actually important, so speculate away.**

 _ **? – 22 Years Old**_

 _I can still see the flames, fire is stretched everywhere, as far as the eye can see. Monsters from the dead roar back to life and attack the living. Eating their flesh and devouring their insides. I never thought something like this was possible, nobody did, and yet, it was happening right in front of me._

 _I took my wife's hand and we ran. It wasn't very smart of me to run with the crowd, but I did anyway. Millions of faces past by me, everyone was squished together, in different colors, voices, and screams. My wife breathing goes right down my neck, she's right by me, just like I instructed her to do so. The military is ordering everyone to the trucks, there already leading people out of here._

 _Someone falls right beside me, and they start screaming for help. My wife begs me to go back for him, but I don't, I don't even risk a glance, for I know what is behind me. Monsters killing people with one quick bite, officers firing their guns into the horde, buildings collapsing in a heaping pile of rubble._

 _Right before we make it to the trucks, something explodes. I fall hard onto the street. Pain spreads across my body. Everything burns, flames lick my back. I scream in response, I almost black out. But even though I feel like I'm about to die, it doesn't matter to me, because my wife isn't beside me anymore._

" _Charlie!"_

…

 **? – 23 Years Old**

My eyes open with a start. My heart beats fast, and I can't slow it down. I have to grab onto my blanket to help reassure me that the nightmare I had wasn't real, or at least didn't happen again. The sound of men laughing and trucks backing up fills my room since the windows are open. I usually shout at them to keep it down, but for once, I'm glad for the noise.

I get up quickly, rubbing my eyes to feel less weary. As I start to stand up, I realize that I have a pounding headache. It must have been from all that drinking last night after we shot up Townsend. What a glorious night, it was fun to waste our ammo and shoot the hell out of every fucking monster that came toward us. At least then I wasn't having nightmares about my past.

Ignoring my head, I go to my wardrobe and pull out the usual choice of clothing. I get on a black t-shirt, long black pants, our group jacket, and my ruined dirty clock, which has our group symbol painted on. After I put them all on, I quickly walk to the bathroom to take a piss. The place is fitly and ruined, I can't remember the last time I had it cleaned.

Once I'm done, I start to walk out, before I catch my reflection in the bathroom mirror. I look so different then I did back then, nothing like the man I was before. My neat brown hair had now transformed into a wild mess, my body has more scars then I can remember, and worst of all is my face. My face is so completely different, that I sometimes forget that my name is "Charlie".

It starts with my left eye, which looks so tired and angry all the time. It's the only eye I can see out of since my right eye was shot in the beginning stages of the apocalypse. It's covered with a black leather eye patch, with our group symbol on it as well. I've started to grow a beard, and since I haven't cut it yet, it growing faster then I can process. My entire face is covered in dirt and sweat from the nights outside, and without any air conditioning to cool me off.

It's getting harder and harder to remember life before the world turned to shit, and it's getting harder and harder to accept that this is our reality. A reality where people like me have only one eye, or where children have turned to bandits in order to survive. I'm lucky to have found a group that can get me what I want, whenever I want. I've learned that being intimidating, and aggressive, gets you exactly what you want. Other people aren't so lucky.

I leave the bathroom and exit my bedroom, taking my pistol with me to make sure none of my men try and do something they're not allowed to do. It takes a while to the big house that I've set up as my home base, but I make it through the front door. I take a deep breathe of fresh air, smiling at the empire I've built. We've only moved in three months ago, and yet, it feels like we've lived here our whole lives. I see men laugh while drinking beer, and slaves I've gathered tend to the crops while some of our soldiers keep an eye on them.

I wonder what Victoria to say, to such an impressive place I've set up.

I look down at our marketplace and see a commotion going on. Curious, I walk down the steps, onto the sidewalk, and toward the marketplace. The shouting gets louder, and I can hear some people's voices. I push past some of the slaves who carry crates of food and supplies to our storage, one of them almost trips but manages to catch their balance.

Once I enter the marketplace, a fresh satisfaction rolls over me again. The marketplace is probably my favorite area in this community. There are so many colors, stalls, personalities to see. I know some of my close friends are here, like Marcus, and Abby, but I am to focuses on the argument that I don't look for them. It's taking place near the entrance of the marketplace.

I push past my men, all of them shrinking backward to let me by. I can tell they've noticed me because now everyone's shouts have died down into quiet whisperers. The further I go, the more confused I get about what the argument is. Usually, the men are arguing about food prices, and the slaves being difficult, but nothing too serious for me. Something bad has happened, and it's getting me angrier by the minute.

After maneuvering my way through the crowd, I make it to the point of the argument, where ten men stand, all bloody, and wounded. None of them look happy.

"What happened," I say calmly since I know that it scares them more when I show no emotion to the situation.

None of them speak, they all look away or start to sob like children. Three of them look like they're about to drop dead, so I order medics to come over and take them to the medical center. Once I get rid of those men, I start to talk to the others again.

"I'll say it again. What. Happened."

After a moment of silence, one of them, a younger fellow, walks to the front. He looks familiar. I remember sending out a scavenging group to look for supplies in Townsend the day before, and I think he was one of the people I randomly picked during the party. He opens his mouth to say something but then closes it, afraid of the answer he wants to give me. Now I'm concerned.

"Tell. Me."

The boy, after looking around at the group, nervously speaks.

"We… were attacked, sir."

I don't even hesitate.

The beast inside me roars and I lunge at the boy. He screams but I punch him hard in the face. None of the men come to his aid, they know what will happen if they do. I grab his arm and drag him to his feet.

"What the FUCK do you mean you were attacked!"

The boy starts to cry, but he holds up his hands.

"We…we were scavenging. Then this group came, out of nowhere. They started shooting, so we shot back. There were so many of them. We didn't have any time, so we ran back here."

Attacked? My men, Attacked? That has to be some bullshit, they were fucking with me.

"You were fucking attacked, and you didn't WIN!"

I throw the boy to the ground, hard.

"Who were they, where are they!"

The boy looks up again, his face is bloody again.

"We don't know! But-"

I pick him up again before he can finish, I'm about to punch his fucking face in, but then he speaks.

"WAIT! Please! Wait! We know where their camp is. One of our scouts followed them. They live in a small campsite. On a hill, near Townsend. We can take them by surprise, kill them all. Isn't that what you want?"

That catches my attention. Meeting the people who somehow managed to take down my men. Perfect. I let the boy go and he squirms over to the back of the crowd. My hands are in a clenched fist and covered in his blood. I turn back and walk away, shouting at everyone.

"SET UP FOR AN ATTACKED TONIGHT, WE LEAVE TOMORROW AT NIGHT."

"But, there just a tiny group sir," one of the men says in the crowd.

"I don't care, SET UP NOW!"

Everyone hurries over to their jobs, and some of the men go over to my house, preparing for a meeting on our assault. I grunt and walk away from the marketplace, annoyed at my men's weakness. If I was there, all those survivors would have been dead. It doesn't matter now I suppose. They will be now.

 **I bet all of you can guess out who this is pretty quick, so tell your thoughts about him. I actually really liked making this character, he was fun to make. I won't say anything else since I don't want to ruin your guy's theories, so enjoy! Also, I know that my deadline predictions aren't so concrete, so I'll stop trying to make them, but look forward to the summer, since I'm going to be out of school. YESSSSSSS!**


	17. Episode 2 - Part 7 - Reasons

**30 Minutes Later…**

 **Emily Cardin – 18 Years Old**

I sit with Nick and Shane on one of the logs that overlook the target range, although we aren't watching anyone shoot a bow and arrow this time. My hands are cold from gripping the coke can that I haven't even bothered to open yet. Meanwhile, Nick and Shane are downing their refreshments, with Nick giving me concerned glances every now and then. I don't blame him for passing me some looks, after the whole blowout with Lewis and Josh, I probably would've been concerned as well, but I wish he wouldn't stare at me like that, it reminds me too much of Connor's face whenever I got hurt or saw something horrifying.

When Josh hit Lewis, I sat up and screamed, it just seemed so shocking. I've never seen Josh smack or hit someone before, and seeing Josh do that to his own son seemed a bit crazy. I didn't even notice I was screaming until I saw the absolute shock on Josh and Lewis's face. Lewis looked horrified to see me there, only for his face to transform into extreme fury and confusion. I remember him struggling to get up and push Josh away, only to storm off in a rage. Almost everybody except Alice and Taylor came rushing into the tent, but by that time, Lewis was gone, and only me and Josh were there.

Looking back, I regret screaming, although there's nothing I can do about it now. Everybody knows that Josh hit his own son, and no one can stop talking about it. For people like Sophie and Alice, who knows what a pain in the ass Lewis is, they didn't care, in fact, Sophie kind of liked it. Other people, however, like Shane and Taylor, were disgusted at what he did. It was kind of sad when Taylor started screaming at Josh about what an awful parent he is, even though I know that's not true. If only she knew what Lewis was really like, considering that they have been here for three days, I'm surprised Lewis didn't show his true colors to my old group sooner.

A chill runs over me, even though its hot outside. Every time I think about my recovery, my mind goes dark and blank, so whenever someone tells me I've been knocked out for three days, I almost gasp and tell them to shut up and stop making up lies. Apparently, though, it's true. After the attack, I was out for three days straight as they tried to fix me up. Shane was able to fix up my shoulder where the bullet hit me, it was my leg they had trouble healing. The knife went way too deep into my skin, and I lost a lot of blood. Everyone's version of my recovery was different. Rebecca told me that I dreamed and said things a lot and she would snicker when she would tell me what I said, Shane said that I slept through most of my days but woke up shouting in others, and Alice told me that she couldn't sleep most nights because my screams would echo through the area.

I don't know who cried more when she told me that.

Surprisingly, the two people that missed me most while I was knocked out were Alice and Rebecca. I thought that when Alice had Taylor back, she would forget all about me, but it seems that she was worried about me the whole time, which made me smile. Rebecca actually missed hanging out with me, and since she was stuck with a lot of guys, and only one woman who was boring in her eyes. It kind of made her pissed that I was out of it for so long. It made me happy to know people missed my bubbly personality while I was knocked out.

I realize that the soda I'm holding is slipping out of my hand, so I open the can, and take a quick sip of soda. It relaxes me a bit more. The refreshing, cool, and tasty liquid runs down my throat and calms me down. I take a glance at Nick and Shane, who both seem to be relieved that I am drinking the soda they offered me before. They don't say anything to me, and I don't try and start a conversation with them, considering that I still am a bit shocked about the whole Josh and Lewis thing. In fact, the whole ordeal makes me want to be left alone.

Nick seems to read my mind because, after a few more seconds, he gets up.

"Hey Shane, I think I heard Rebecca calling out for us. We better get going." Nick says.

Shane looks at him with confusion.

"I didn't hear anything," Shane replies.

"Well I did, and I know for a fact that a certain someone wants's us to go to her."

Shane seems to get what Nick is saying pretty quickly and stands to join him. They both start to walk away, but I only glance back at them for a second, just in time to see Nick giving me a thumbs up. I nod in thanks and look back over to the target range. For a few minutes, I don't say or even think about anything. I just quietly drink my soda. The forest is quiet as well, except for the occasional bird chirping deep in the woods where I can't see them. In fact, now that I think about it, I haven't really explored the woods since Alice and I have gotten here.

With that thought in my mind, I grow more curious about what is in the woods, and I also do want to get away from the camp for a bit. I stand up and walk across the target range area. I then leave the camp and enter the deep dark depths of the woods. At first, the woods are quiet, like they've always been, but the deeper I go, the more alive it begins to feel again. I touch the trees, feeling their hard bark. I jump around on the logs that held different types of critters inside. I smell the golden yellow flowers growing on a bush.

Then, I see the animals. Birds fly around the trees, singing happy songs. I watch lizards scurry away into bushes. And I think at one point, I see a deer in the distance, sniffing around quietly. I'm careful not to disturb the wildlife since I don't want any of the animals to notice me, especially walkers. I see a few here and there walking around in the woods, but the ones I see right now, I can get a closer look at. One of them is a muscular man, who walks around still holding a grocery bag. I killed him, but the only thing inside the bag were crayons and one notebook. I take it with me anyway. The next walker I see is a woman with no legs. I quickly stabbed her in the head and left her behind.

Perhaps the most haunting walker I saw, was a little boy who was slumped across a tree. He noticed me and attempted to lunge at me, but I dodged him easily and watched as he toppled to the ground. I took out my knife and regrettably stabbed him in the back. He groaned for a few seconds, but then was silent. Once he was down, I checked his pockets, until I found a note, clearly written by him.

 _Dear Mom,_

 _If you find this note, then it means I'm dead. Please don't be sad that I'm gone since I know how much guilt and depression can harm yourself and others if you don't take care of yourself. If you do find this note, then please read it to Kiley, I want you both to read this. Under my bed, is a jar full of vegetables I decided to not eat. If you guys are hungry or need to trade, then please take the jar, don't use it as a shrine for me, I wouldn't want you to waste it. Sorry, this note is poorly made, but I am writing this on short notice since I am bitten. At least I'm going to meet dad and Sawyer now._

 _From Duncan._

My heart breaks when I read it, feeling bad for the kid, and his family. I wonder if they ever found him, or if they did and just left the note after they read it. They would have had to kill him though, so I don't think they ever found him. I don't know why I feel bad, or sad. I don't even know the kid, and yet I feel like it's my fault he's dead. I guess that's just a feeling that comes automatically to me. I put the note in my pocket, in case I meet someone named Kiley and know the kid.

Walking away, I continue to go deeper into the woods until I come across a wolf symbol on a tree. The spray-painted symbol gives me flashbacks to the town square and I shiver. I wonder if they were the wolfs were ones that attacked us earlier and gave me the ugly looking scars on my body. I haven't really thought about the wolfs until now. Back in the fight, I was only focused on staying alive, and then, when I was knocked out, I couldn't even think of them because of how weak and tired I was.

Thinking more about them now is unsettling since I don't know what type of demographic their in. At first, I would think they are kind of a reckless party group, that just shoot up walkers for the hell of it and get drunk, but if the wolfs were the ones that attacked us, then it would be pretty hard to see them as drunk retards. They had pretty intense gear, and they did almost kill us.

I decided to try and forget about the wolfs and pay attention to the woods. The further I walk, the more the woods come to life. Trees conceal sunlight, revealing fireflies, I even find a little stream, but I still feel like I'm walking further and further away from the camp, and my friends.

Eventually, after an hour of walking, I come across a clearing. The sudden sunlight blinds me after I escaped the trees. Once my eyes adjust, I look around. In front of me is a highway, that is not full of cars. I'm right next to a huge billboard, advertising a product that I long forgot the name for. On the other side of the high way, is a little cabin surrounded by a fence, but other than that, it's just a huge highway surrounded by forest.

I was pretty surprised to see a highway this sudden, especially since there were no cars on the highway. Usually, especially in large cities, there were millions of cars on the roads. It was a reminder of the people who tried to escape when it all started. I shiver remembering it, no matter how long I live, I won't forget the terror and dread I felt when everything I knew, and love was taken away from me in an instant.

I start to head toward the cabin, where I very cautiously cross the highway. Once I make it to the other side, I jump onto the fence and start to climb it. I had a little rush of excitement while I was climbing the fence, it made me feel like a rebel, doing something that I wasn't supposed to be doing.

With a quick hop, I land on the other side of the fence. Right in front of me was the cabin, which seemed to rest silently while I approached it. Usually, cabins near the highway were banged up and destroyed, but this one didn't look too bad. It had a single floor, with two windows in the front of it and two in the back. There were stairs that led to the front porch, which was only had a chair on it.

I walked up the steps and tried to open the door. I wasn't surprised when it opened up since most houses these days were usually broken into and ransacked until it was picked clean. When I looked inside, I found nothing except a blue sleeping bag and a blown-out lantern. There was tons of graffiti, even some that were done before the apocalypse. I guess there were a lot of troublemakers back then who didn't give a shit about the law. I wonder where they are now.

Many of the drawings actually had dates under them, so I decided to check all of them. The earliest graffiti I could find was dated _11/28/08_ , and it was a drawn picture of an AK-47 with a smiley face on it. Most of the other drawings that were made that were dated before the apocalypse was basic huge letters saying names.

But there was one that was dated before the apocalypse that freaked me out. The one that freaked me out had a single sentence, and what it said disturbed me more than I can explain.

 _Parker, if you're reading this, then please return home. The world is going to end on 01/19/17. The government is lying to us, we have to fight back. We have to find Hyundai, they'll tell us everything._

 _12/29/16_

I don't know what I felt in those couple of seconds, especially since I was knocked out only three days before. Somehow, some guy and this group called Hyundai, predicted when the world was going to end, in only a few days prior when it actually happened. I don't know whether to be impressed or worried, because when I read the park about the government, it made me even more nervous than before.

I never thought about how the apocalypse began. I just focused on me and Connor's survival, and when we had free time, I never really thought about it either. But something about this is strange, especially when the message mentioned the government. It is true I never really read about politics, but I was old enough to know that during that time, the government was doing much to protect the country, or really doing anything back then. And when the apocalypse started, the government was almost destroyed, and the military vanished. Maybe the government was the reason the world ended in the first place.

Even though it could be just one guy who was making up crap, it was very worried that he somehow knew when the apocalypse was going to start. I look toward the windows, the sun is setting, and I have to make it back to the camp in a hurry. So I take the unlit lantern and look around at the cabin one last time before closing the door.

I need to find out what's happening.

 **Sorry, this took awhile to get out since I was on vacation with my family. This chapter was all over the place, and there is no doubt that there are probably spelling mistakes. Luckily, I have two other chapters done, and I think those ones are much better, but I have to improve and tweak them before I publish them. I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, even though it was all over the place. I was very confused on how to make this chapter, and I know I probably didn't portray it perfectly. In fact, I challenge you guys to write this chapter in your style, you guys don't have to do it, but it would be very interesting to see your guys' way of writing this story. PM me if you're interested, and I'll tell you what, if you do, then you can give me a chapter idea.**

 **Fun Fact: I went through four ideas for this chapter, and they all sucked.**

 **Take Care**

 **CandleFire45**


	18. Episode 2 - Part 8 - Warmth and Stars

**Emily Cardin – 18 Years Old**

I slowly walk through the woods, passing by many animals and trees. Leaves crunch under my feet, making loud noises that echo through the trees. I don't bother trying to keep quiet to avoid walkers since Josh's camp is pretty close by anyway. I clutch my chest, trying to keep myself calm. I haven't been bitten or anything, but it's just I have a sinking feeling about a lot of stuff that's been going on, and I just don't know what to focus on anymore.

In the past three months, so many things have happened to me that hasn't happened in the past year since I was alive. I joined a group, lost Connor, got into a coma, and met many new people. I honestly don't know what to think of it all. On one hand, it's nice to be next to people that care about you, but on the other hand, I still don't know much about any of them. I realize I'm caught up in my mind and shake my head, I just need to be calm and focus on getting back.

By the time I make it back to our camp, the sun had set completely, and the stars are just starting to come out. I see that Josh has set up a fire, and everyone is sitting around it, laughing and giggling. It makes my heart warm up a bit and makes me forget for just a quick moment that the world has ended. Once I start to head up the hill, I notice Rebecca staring at me. She smiles and waves me over to join them. I consider not for a second but seeing everyone sitting down and enjoying themselves makes me walk over.

Everyone is sitting down and talking. Shane and Taylor sit next to each other, having a peaceful conversation. Richard, who I realize I haven't spoken to yet, sits next to Alice, and they both laugh while they roast marshmallows. Sophie sits by herself but is having a conversation with Nick, who sits right next to Rebecca. Josh sits on his own chair and brings out a pack of marshmallows for all of us to eat. Seeing everyone together makes me smile for a bit, so I take a seat on a log next to Rebecca.

"Well look who finally decided to show up," Rebecca says, smirking, "Did you enjoy your walk in the woods?"

"Yeah," I quickly answer, "I just needed some time to think about things."

"We all do," Rebecca admits, grabbing a stick and a marshmallow and sticking through it.

I grab a stick myself and Josh hands me a marshmallow, looking at me grimly. I try to avoid his gaze, but it's clear to me that Josh isn't having fun. I ignore that thought and stick my marshmallow on my stick and roast it over the fire. All of the conversations have ceased, and everyone quietly looks at the glowing fire in front of our eyes. It's very peaceful to hear the fire crackle and pop in the night. It reminds me of the many times Connor and I had to camp out in the woods together.

I notice Lewis is absent in this little festivity we have. I look around for him but see him nowhere. I'm starting to worry about him, where could he have gone?

I try not to focus on Lewis though, and just roast my marshmallow.

"You missed a lot while we were apart," Rebecca says, interrupting my train of thought.

"Really?" I say, "What did I miss?"

Rebecca quickly looks down, only to shift her gaze to me. Her eyes twinkle due to the fire. Just like the stars in the sky.

"Well for starters," She starts, "You missed… Shane going ballistic over the escape mission. He started to flip out and he cursed himself out for not thinking of a better solution."

"Really?"

"Yep, I had to pull him together, so we could find the others. We easily found Nick, covered in zombie blood. He smelled awful."

We both giggle and I start to laugh out loud when I notice Nick looking at us but smirking himself. After Rebecca pulls herself together, she tells the rest of the story.

"Anyway, once we found he helped us find Taylor, breaking down in a broken shack over Alice and Fredrick. She didn't know if they died or survived, so it really took a toll on her."

The mention of Fredrick's name makes my heart break for a second, but what really gets me is Rebecca mentioning Taylor's breakdown. I never really thought of how Taylor must've taken the whole escape herself. Hearing it now doesn't make me feel any better about what happened that night. Hell, it almost reminds me of how I reacted when Connor sacrificed himself.

"It was hell the first few days," Rebecca continued, "We didn't have much of our stuff, and Taylor constantly attracted walkers. It wasn't easy surviving with her."

"Did you consider kicking her out?" I blurt out.

I quickly regret the words I say, and I feel like Taylor's eyes are burning into my skull, but Rebecca answers easily.

"For a few days I did, but Shane and Nick talked me out of it. Besides, I was kidding, of course, I mean, I wouldn't leave her defenseless or anything. It was just a quick thought."

I nod and turn my attention to the fire. Thinking on how awful those first few nights must have been for them.

"I'm really sorry we didn't try and find you guys," I say.

Rebecca looks at me and smiles.

"Don't worry about it." Rebecca answers, "You had to get out of there in a hurry because you had Alice with you."

We both then stop talking for a bit and just stare at the others. I watch Alice and Richard roast marshmallows together and see Taylor and Shane quietly watch them as they do. Sophie looks up at the bright stars in the sky, probably thinking about her family. Nick just sits down and probably daydreams, and then I watch him overshoot his stick so now it's roasting in the fire instead of his marshmallow. Josh just looks down, and I can't tell what he's thinking about, could be a number of things.

Seeing everyone here makes me think about Connor, and how much I miss him again. It's been three months since he saved me and Alice, and I can't get him out of my mind. Will I ever see him again?

Then, a crushing realization hits me. What if I do never see him again. What if he really is dead, his body decomposing back at the city, and I fled. What if I could have saved him, but I somehow didn't notice how I could. What if he's dead, and the last thought he had was of me hating him in his last minutes of life.

"Oh god," I say, out loud.

Rebecca watches me but doesn't say a word. She must know I don't want to talk about it. About Connor...

"You want to talk about what happened to Connor?"

So, I guess she does want to know.

I desperately don't want to say anything about him, but I really need to tell someone about it. I have told Josh and Lewis about Connor, but I never told them what happened to him, other then we got split up. But I never want to delve into what happened to me during that night, and that moment of when I lost him.

We stay quiet for a little while longer before Rebecca gives up.

"If you don't want to talk about it, then I understand. But you should know, keeping something like that inside you, isn't healthy for your body. Trust me when I say this if I spent my entire life focusing on fucked up things in my past, I would be dead right now. You got to learn when to let something go."

I sigh and stare at the fire, that is now finally dimming out.

"Did you find his body in the horde?" I ask.

Rebecca looks at me, almost sadly. It causes my heart to race with fear.

"We didn't find him anywhere. The horde was too thick and big, so we couldn't go back to see if he made it or not. I'm really sorry Emily."

I stare down. I knew they probably didn't find anything of Connor, but it was worth a try I guess.

"Thank you for telling me Rebecca," I say.

Rebecca smiles and looks at me.

"That's what friends are for, right?"

The word friend brings down a shockwave into me. Is she serious? I don't know anything about her besides a few things. But, the more I think about it, the happier I am. I may have lost Connor and Beth. But I can make new friends without them, right?

We both smile, and I take my stick out of the fire with my marshmallow. Which is completely black and is melting. Rebecca notices and laughs her ass off, which causes the others to take notices and laugh too. I try to take it off the stick, but it burns the second I touch it. I pull my hand away and notice Rebecca laughing louder.

"Oh man, that was great." She says, wiping her eyes.

"Have you never roasted a marshmallow before?" Nick suddenly asks.

My cheeks burn, but then, I quickly smile.

"I wouldn't be questioning my skills, Nick, since I see that your stick is on fire." I counter.

Nick quickly looks at his stick, which is indeed, on fire. He shouts for a bit before realizing that walkers can hear us, and he throws it in the fire. Everyone is unable to contain their laughter. My heart lights up as everyone laughs together, making me forget about Conner, at least for a little bit.

Maybe we really will be okay.

…

 **Charlie – 23 Years Old**

It's dark outside, and not a single sound can be heard. All of my men have probably gone to sleep, except my security that patrols the town. I sit at the edge of my bed, fully outfitted with my armor and guns. The entire assault has been planned, and soon, tomorrow night, we will attack the survivors that dared threaten my status as a leader. So why do I feel so sad inside? Shouldn't I be happy about the next few days? I know somethings been troubling me, and I know exactly what it is, but I don't know how to confront it, or how to confront her.

Victoria's birthday is coming soon, it's happening in seven days to be exact. Right now, if the world was alive, I would have been wrapping her gifts and ordered champagne, just for the two of us. But that was all ruined when she died. I haven't known what to do since then. During her last birthday, I just focused on surviving, running into new groups, and building our own little town, our own camp. I can't remember the last time I properly thought about Victoria like this. I was so focused on myself, that I never really thought about her anymore.

Shaking my head in frustration, I rise up and walk toward the windows to draw the curtains. I grip onto the soft fabric, but just before I pull the curtains, something catches my eyes. The sky, full of stars, all shining and twinkling in the night. They seem to radiate with light. Something about seeing the cold, dark night, filled with stars in its sky, is very comforting to me. I feel like Victoria would feel the exact same way.

A smile grows on my face for the first time in the apocalypse, a genuinely happy smile. I close the curtains, blocking out the light, and the last glimpses of my past.

…

As the night draws nearer, more and more survivors across the globe blow out their candles, turn off their lights, and get some rest. The walkers wander aimlessly in fields and cities, desperately searching for meat to fill their empty bodies. Many military officers in California, get one last look at the stars before shutting their curtains and joining their colleagues.

Somewhere in Townsend, a sixteen-year-old boy walks around, not knowing anything about the area he is in. He takes in the remarkable number of stars in the sky, smiling for a bit before hearing gunshots in the distance. He then quickly retreats to an old house across the street to avoid confrontation, and finds a secure house with bits of food and water inside. Just the place where he plans to spend the rest of the night.

Somewhere on the same highway, Emily Cardin was once walking, a lonesome military HMMWV sits quietly as a muscular man digs through his cooler and finds a bottle of alcohol. He sits in his chair, star gazing as he drinks. He hums old music that he seems to enjoy and smiles as his pet dog lies down and takes a nap right beside him.

Five miles away, in a town called Lunenburg, a teenage couple reside away in a small house, going unnoticed by the walkers that roam the street. The girl quickly falls asleep, smiling knowing she is safe with her boyfriend. The boy takes a little while to rest though, securing every nook and cranny in the house, only to then, feel safe enough to sleep with his girlfriend.

Lewis sits in the woods, alone, cold, and really hungry. The bright red mark engulfs his cheek, but he can barely feel the pain anymore. He looks up, unable to see anything in the sky due to the trees blocking his view. He sigs and watches the walkers that roam in the woods at night, feeling a bit depressed, and very guilty of himself.

And once the moon finally shines brighter than the stars, the main group crawl into their tents and wish each other goodnight. Josh lies alone in his tent, worrying. Nick, Shane, and Richard all quickly sleep, and all of the girls quietly sing before they decided to rest. The entire world grows quiet, and soon, for the first time ever, things quiet down, for this broken world.

 **I hope you all like that, I am extremely sorry for taking so long to write, so I hope this chapter was able to please some of you. If you're confused by the ending, well, sorry about that, I didn't know what else to really put after Charlie's POV, so I kind of did my own thing. If you guys want an explanation for why this chapter took so long, well, the real reason was, I was lazy. I mean, its summer, and with school coming up for me soon, I'm taking all the days I can to relax. Sorry if you're pissed, I probably would be too so at least we agree on something. Hope you liked this chapter. See you guys soon, hopefully.**

 **Take Care**

 **-CandleFire45**

 **P.S: This is not the end to the story, If it feels like that, then you got it all wrong, I'm going to continue this, I just thought this would be a cool way ending this part.**


	19. I'm so Sorry

**Hello Guys,**

 **Now, I don't know how to start this because I promised myself I would never have to do this. But I am, and I don't know what to say. If anyone is still reading my story I am very sorry that I have took so long to publish a chapter, but this is probably the last chapter I'll ever post to this story, because…**

 **I am officially cancelling Broken World.**

 **I know, I promised all of you I would never cancel it, that I would keep on chugging through until I reached the end of the season. But I can't, and there are a lot of reasons. If you don't want to see those reasons, then you can just skip them, but please read them so you understand why I'm doing this.**

 **I just had no idea where the story was going. I tried to plan out everything in my head, but I just had no idea what to do and what was going on. Everyone sent me these amazing submissions, but I had no idea what to really do with them. All of the characters were so complex and interesting, but my writing at the time never really captured their true potential, and I'm sorry for that.**

 **My real-world life has been quite busy. I've been trying to juggle my school, friends, family, and my writing all at the same time, I've never been a super organized person, but I was really trying, but as you can see with my updates for this story, maybe not hard enough. I would be inactive for months, just because I was doing something else, and I felt really bad leaving you guys for so long with nothing. I just didn't know how to balance my time correctly.**

 **I lost interest. I have to be honest. It was all fun at first, and this was my first SYOT. I was so excited to start it. But like everything in this world. I lost interest. It's particular my fault, considering I never put any thought into it, but still. I soon lost interest with zombies, and the walking dead in general, and after looking into other things, I kind of forgot about the story. I loved all the characters you guys sent me, don't get me wrong, nothing was wrong with them and they didn't force me to quit the story because of it, I think it was just because of me, not really taking care of anything, and Ii regret that.**

 **I just had so much pressure on me. I had no idea what anyone was thinking outside of reviews, and I worried every night if I was doing anything right. I am a super sensitive person, and I just would die at the idea of someone thinking everything I do is trash. I do like constructive criticism, but even that got scary, I just didn't like knowing I was doing things wrong. I've improved now, but I think I couldn't keep up with the demand of the story.**

 **Guys, if you are still reading this, I am so sorry I decided to end this. Trust me it was not an easy decision, this story, is a relic for me, it's the first time I did an SYOT, with people actually PMing me all day with their characters, it was really great. But some things can't last forever, and I'm sorry I couldn't keep this up longer.**

 **Before you all leave, I do have one more surprise for you. I didn't just want to end this with nothing ever being found out, and since I canceled this story, I guess I should reveal the characters fates, it's the right thing to do, I think. I hope you guys like it.**

 **Emily -** Emily would have survived, all the way up to season 2, episode 5, where I planned on her dying by being attacked by the villain and killing him, before she bled out herself. She would have died at age 19, and would have been great friends with Nick. She would finally confess her feelings to Connor when he reappeared in the story.

 **Conner –** Conner would have survived the story, all the way up to season 2, episode 5. I planned for him to come back in season 1, episode 4, as a member of an evil group, just so he can get back to Emily. After the final fight and Emily is killed, Conner would have taken a bunch of survivors and make a new community. Conner would have been the leader for the new group after season 2.

 **Shane –** I planned on keeping Shane alive, up until season 2, episode 5, where he would have died during the final attack, shot in the back by one of the members. He would die grabbing a grenade and exploding the area he was in. I planned on him being really good friends with Taylor

 **Rebecca –** Rebecca would have survived up until season 2, episode 1, where I planned on her dying from a walker bite, and she would sacrifice herself to let the others escape. She would have been great friends with Emily, Nick, and Shane. I also planned on giving her a fake out death in season 1 episode 3.

 **Nick –** Nick would have survived the story, all the way up to season 2, episode 5. Nick would have been the back bone of the group, trying to save and take care of everyone. I also planned on Nick having romantic feelings for Emily, but understandably, backing off when Connor made a re appearance, causing some tension between them. Once Emily died, Nick would have joined Connor in the new group.

 **Taylor –** Taylor would have survived until season 2, episode 2, where she would have died from a walker bite that she didn't tell the group about. She would give Alice one last hug before walking into the woods and shooting herself in the head. I planned on her becoming good friends with Shane and Richard.

 **Alice –** Alice would have (obviously) survived the story, all the way up to season 2, episode 5. She would have learned how to defend herself, and how to be an adult. When her mother died, she would have become really depressed and hardened. I planned on he having a good friendship with Richard, since he was really caring and nice to her. She would have joined Conner in the new group.

 **Josh –** Josh would have survived up until season 1, episode 4, where I planned on him getting shot in the head by one of the gangs that were chasing them. Before this however, he would try and patch things up with Lewis.

 **Lewis –** Lewis would have survived the story, all the way up to season 2, episode 5. I planned on him having this whole redemption arc after being an asshole to his dad for so long. When his dad died, he would help Emily and the other survivors take down the group. He would have lived in the new group at the end of Season 2 with Connor.

 **Sophie –** I planned on Sophie surviving up until season 2, episode 4, where I planned on her leaving the group before the final fight, not wanting to be a part of the destruction. She would come back though at the end of the season, joining the new group with Connor. The fate of Sophie's family would be left unknown.

 **Travis –** Travis would have survived up until season 2, episode 5, where I planned on him dying from a missile aimed at his truck. He would get his dog out before he died though. I planned on him going on and off the group, not trusting them, but still wanting to help them in some way. Conner and the others would bring his dog to the new group and care for him.

 **Eli –** Eli would have survived up until Season 2, Episode 3, where I planned on him leaving the group, so he could avoid the final battle. He would re appear in a later season 3 if I decided to make one. He would have been really good friends with Nick, Emily, and Connor. I planned on introducing him in season 1, episode 2. (Sorry)

 **Amelia –** Amelia Bea Rousseau would have survived the story, all the way up to season 2, episode 5. I would have introduced her in season 1, episode 4. She would have joined Connor in the new group, along with Osbourne, however, they would not stay for long. Leaving 2 weeks after the group was created.

 **Osbourne –** Osbourne Chen would have survived the story, all the way to season 2, episode 5. I would have introduced him in season 1, episode 4. He would have joined Connor in the new group, along with Amelia, however, they would not stay for long. Leaving 2 weeks after the group was created.

 **Jaymes –** Jaymes would have survived the story, all the way up to season 2, episode 5. I would have introduced him in season 1 episode 4. He would be really friendly to everyone in the group, and would usually be the person who people talk about their problems with him. He would have joined Conner's new group.

 **Daisy –** Daisy would have survived the story, all the way up to season 2, episode 5. I would have introduced her and James in season 1, episode 3. She would be really close friends with Emily, and be really nice and kind to everyone. She would join Conner's new group, after her boyfriend dies.

 **James –** James would have survived up until season 2, episode 5, where I planned on him saving Daisy from a shotgun bullet. He would die from bleeding out talking to Daisy. He would generally be respectable to everyone, but still cautious, and only joining them if Daisy was there. He would eventually trust them more, and become good friends with Conner.

 **Donald –** Donald would be a villain, all the way from season 1, episode 5, to season 2, episode 4, where Richard and he would have a full-on fight, ending with Richard being victorious. I was planning on Donald to be the first villain they encountered, but I decided to put in Charlie first because why not? He would have stalked the group, and killed a few people.

 **Richard –** Richard would have survived the story, all the way up until season 2, episode 5. Richard would be very kind and nice to everyone, especially Alice, who liked him a lot. He would protect the group no matter what, and have a fight between Donald, and Charlie later. He would take multiple wounds during the fight, but still stay alive. Richard would have joined Conner in the new group.

 **I know I'm missing quite a few other survivors, so if I missed yours, please PM me if you want to know of there fate.**

 **Again, I'm so sorry I decided to cancel the story, I was trying so hard to write this to completion, but sometimes, you just lose interest. If anyone want's to PM me about the story, then they are happy to do so. I hope you all understand, and again, I'm so sorry.**

 **Take Care**

 **CandleFire45**


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